First slide

Water Pollution and its Control

Question

The following is an aquatic food chain:
Phytoplankton $\to$ Zooplankton $\to$ Fish $\to$ Bird
In the above food chain, the concentration of DDT is most likely to be:

Easy

A

Lowest in phytoplankton because DDT undergoes biodegradation
B

Highest in bird because DDT is metabolized in plants and animals
C

Lowest in bird because energy flow follows 10% rule
D

Highest in bird because DDT undergoes biomagnification

Solution

Biomagnification refers to an increase in the concentration of the toxicant at successive trophic levels. This happens because a toxic substance accumulated by an organism cannot be metabolised or excreted and is thus passed on to the next higher trophic level.
DDT is highly fat-soluble and poorly soluble in water. Hence it tends to accumulate in the fatty tissues and cannot be diluted or excreted in urine.
The other options are wrong because DDT is not biodegradable and cannot be metabolised in organisms and its concentration cannot be related to energy flow.

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