Good Example Of Biological Magnification: Essay

A Look at Organic Foods

A Look at Organic Foods
In today’s society there is a movement of people going back to organic foods. Unfortunately, the cost of organic foods is often an obstacle for most families to be able to eat organic. Due to the science of biological magnification, different foods accumulate chemicals at different rates. Because of this science, if a family could only buy certain organic foods, they should spend their money on organic meats, avoiding fish.
Although fish has many health benefits, they also have a higher ability to undergo biomagnification. “fish species known to bioaccumulate mercury in offshore waters of North America include Atlantic swordfish, Pacific blue marlin, tunas, and halibut, among others. These fish can accumulate mercury from trace concentrations in seawater (less than 0.1 ppm) to concentrations in flesh that commonly exceed 0.5 ppm of the fresh weight of the fish” (Swackhammer, 2008). The maximum intake of mercury for humans is 0.5 ppm (Swackhammer, 2008). An experiment performed by Gobas, Wells and Zhang (1993) on guppies and goldfish showed that the fish held higher concentrations of chemicals then was present in the food they were fed (n.p.).
Not only were fish found to have a high biomagnification, so were other animals in general. Chemicals adhere to fats, so animals are more likely to have a high lipid content than plants (Swackhammer, 2008). Animals at the top of the food chain are even more likely to have a higher concentration of chemicals, “The widespread occurrence of food-web biomagnification of DDT and other chlorinated hydrocarbons caused chronic, ecotoxicological damage to birds and mammals of many species” (Swackhammer, 2008). This also means human, who are at the top of the food chain, have a higher chemical concentration. This is why we should avoid meats that have been raised inorganically.

References

Gobas, F., Wells, R., & Zhang, X. (1993, December 1). Gastrointestinal magnification: The mechanism of biomagnification and food chain accumulation of organic chemicals. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
Swackhammer, D. (2008, January 1). Biomagnification. Retrieved March 4, 2015.