What is biomagnification?
When a number of plant-feeding organisms feed on plant material that has been treated with a toxic pesticide, most of the organisms are killed but a few survive. In some cases, the survivors are able to metabolize or void the toxic material. In other cases, it is stored in the pest’s tissue. If a predator were to feed on a number of these plant-feeding survivors, all of the stored material is then made a part of the predator’s system. Sometimes the predators are able to metabolize or void this collective quantity – sometimes it gets stored again but now it is stored in the one predator. The pesticide has been “biomagnified” as it moved up the food chain. The problem, of course, is that man is at the top of most food chains.
