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Study the food web shown below.
(a) Identify and write the food chain from the food web shown, in which the eagle will receive the highest percentage of the energy from the producers.
(b) Which organism will be the most affected when a non-biodegradable pesticide is introduced into the soil? What is the phenomenon responsible for this called?
Answer:
(a) According to the 10% law of energy flow , only 10% of the energy is passed onto the next trophic level.
Therefore, the higher the number of trophic levels , the lesser the energy the final consumer (here: Eagle) gets.
Thus the chain with the lowest number of trophic levels would impart the highest energy to the eagle.
Grass --> Mouse --> Eagle
(b) The eagle will be the most affected.
This is due to biomagnification .
Biomagnification is the accumulation of toxic substances at higher levels of the food chain.
