Question

Health agencies in the US and Canada recommend that people (particularly children and pregnant women) should not eat tuna on a regular basis (le more than once a week) because of mercury (a heavy metal that can be poisonous) contamination Other fish like salmon are safe to eat regularly

Draw a simple food chain consisting of at least four trophic levels, including the organisms mentioned above. Label the trophic levels

Draw a food chain and illustrate why tuna may have more mercury contamination than salmon or trout

Answer 1

I can't insert a food chain here, but the reason why tuna may have more mercury contamination than salmon or trout is because it is higher up in trophic structure. Why is this significant? It's because of a phenomenon known as biological magnification, in which toxins accumulate the most at higher trophic levels.