Here was a yahoo answer; Motoko answered 7 years ago since you only obtain a small portion of energy stored by the organism in your diet, higher carnivores have to eat more in order to sustain their energy need. However, toxins like DDT are completely absorbed by the higher carnivores, therefore the higher up the food chain you are, the more toxins you intake. That is what biomagnification refers to. Bald eagles and other top carnivores like polar bears are subject to the affects of toxins like DDT more than other organisms in lower trophic levels due to the fact that they ingest more toxins. In bald eagles, this causes their eggs to be extremely fragile and break easily before the offspring is hatched. Polar bears are also affected by birth defects and the like. Overall, the biomagnification of DDT has caused their birth rates and survival rates to decline.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 21:11:21 +0000
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