Thursday, October 1, 2015
Biomagnification Case Study
Biomagnification is the process within an ecosystem, where high concentrations of chemicals such as; DDT, Mercury, BPA, and microplastics, along with others, pass through the levels of the food chain due to predator and prey relationships. Mercury ends up in the environment because of deposition from the atmosphere, commonly from rainfall. It also enters the environment through human activities. Mercury is mostly found in aquatic environments in remote areas. Mercury is mostly seen in aquatic environments because it spreads through rainfall, which then enters bodies of water. Even though majority of bodies of water have low rates of Mercury overall, it still causes for toxicological concern. Once Mercury enters the body of water, it then is found in sediments, fish and wildlife, and then put back into the atmosphere through volatilization. Volatilization is the process by which a dissolved sample is vaporized. Bacteria in the aquatic environment, takes up mercury in its inorganic form. Mercury is then processed into a more harmful chemical called Methylmercury. Methylmercury is more toxic and takes longer to be eliminated in the organism. Methylmercury is then consumed by the next trophic level of the food chain, in this case it would probably be small fish. The fish then accumulate the Methlymercury, which increases the concentration of Methylmercury in the next bigger fish, like tuna. Humans consume tuna in their diets, not only consuming the fish but all of the total Methylmercury concentrations that have been accumulated. Mercury affects the nervous system, senses, motor skills, and in severe cases it can affect the function of the brain. A way to clean up the problem of Mercury biomagnification, is by limiting or stopping Mercury emissions all together from human activities and get rid of certain products that contain Mercury.
Source:
"U.S. Geological Survey." Mercury Contamination of Aquatic Ecosystems. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Oct. 2015.
http://water.usgs.gov/wid/FS_216-95/FS_216-95.html
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i claim this post for assessment.
ReplyDeletei claim this post for assessment.
ReplyDeletePartial: I think you did a good job with this, however you didn't mention any uses for mercury and you should be more specific about the human activities that lead to mercury entering the environment. What are they?
ReplyDeleteOther than this, you've filled all the requirements for this assignment.
Human activities that lead to mercury entering the environment are; simply consuming fish like I stated in my post, tuna, through objects that obtain mercury like, thermometers which can break, and light bulbs contain mercury and often break. It also enters the atmosphere through manufacturing companies from burning coal for fuel and through natural sources like, volcanoes.
ReplyDeleteMercury is an interesting chemical. As it turns out, elemental mercury (like the stuff in thermometers) is not super dangerous to ingest. As the panda points out, once it enters the food chain it is converted to the much more dangerous methylmercury (which is easily absorbed). Once I broke an old thermometer after school. It was a very small amount of mercury. But it was important to call the district's hazmat response team so that they could dispose of it in a way that prevented it from being introduced to the environment (where it could be converted into methylmercury).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.usgs.gov/themes/factsheet/146-00/
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