Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The increasing concentration of a substance, such as a toxic chemical, in the tissues of organisms at successively higher levels in a food chain.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun biology The process, in an
ecosystem , in which a higherconcentration of a substance in anorganism is obtained higher up thefood chain .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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This process, called biomagnification, is the reason why undetectable levels of CDDs in water can result in measurable concentrations in aquatic animals.
Public Health Statement for Chlorinated Dibenzo-p-dioxins (CDDs) 2008
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They feed one rung higher than we do, and in what is known as the law of biomagnification, that means that they receive a more concentrated level of all the contaminants that we have been exposed to over the course of our own lifetimes.
The Autoimmune Epidemic Donna Jackson Nakazawa 2008
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They feed one rung higher than we do, and in what is known as the law of biomagnification, that means that they receive a more concentrated level of all the contaminants that we have been exposed to over the course of our own lifetimes.
The Autoimmune Epidemic Donna Jackson Nakazawa 2008
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Contaminant inputs, mobilization, or increased fluxes driven by temperature changes will increase availability and biomagnification of contaminants in food chains (-)
Effects of climate change on general hydro-ecology in the Arctic 2009
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Methylmercury in marine ecosystems: spatial patterns and processes of production, bioaccumulation, and biomagnification.
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As tertiary consumers we are not only exposed to pollutants in our water supply, but to high concentrations in our food supply due, in part, to biomagnification.
Timothy LaSalle: Thirsting for Truth: No "Safe" Level of Atrazine 2009
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Examples include inefficient fat transfers in aquatic food webs (i.e., biomagnification) [10], the loss of organic carbon in settling particles or during sediment diagenesis [11], the decrease of snow surface area as crystals become more compact during aging or the entire loss of snow surface during melting [12], or cryogenic concentration during the formation of ice [13] (Fig. 8.23).
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Changes in aquatic trophic structure and zoogeographic distributions will alter biomagnification of contaminants, including persistent organic pollutants and mercury, and potentially affect freshwater food webs, especially top-level predatory fish (e.g., lake trout) that are sought by all types of fisheries.
Key findings, science gaps, and recommendations for freshwater ecosystems in the ACIA 2009
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The overall result will be higher contaminant loads and biomagnification in ecosystems.
Key findings, science gaps, and recommendations for freshwater ecosystems in the ACIA 2009
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It had been found that the concentration of such chemicals increased to dangerous levels owing to biomagnification in the food chain, until levels dangerous to human health sometimes occurred.
Diffusion of Innovations Everett M. Rogers 1995
chained_bear commented on the word biomagnification
Note on hypervitaminosis A.
September 11, 2008