Question

Describe, in three or four steps, how toxins get more concentrated in organisms going up the food chain

Answer 1

Explanation:

Small amounts of toxic substances - often pesticides or pollution from human activity - are absorbed by plants.

These plants are eaten by primary consumers in low concentrations.

The toxin cannot be excreted so when the primary consumers are eaten by secondary consumers all the toxin is absorbed by the secondary consumers.

This repeats as secondary consumers are eaten by higher level consumers.

At each trophic level of the food chain, the toxins remain in the tissues of the animals - so the concentration of toxin becomes most concentrated in the body tissues of the animals at the top of the food chain.