Mercury is known to biomagnify in food chains, in the same manner as DDT. Based on your knowledge of biomagnification of DDT, which organism would you expect to contain the most mercury in a contaminated lake?
algae and plants aquatic insects fish-eating birds large fish small fish
In the context of biomagnification, the organism that would be expected to contain the most mercury in a contaminated lake is fish-eating birds.
Biomagnification refers to the process by which the concentration of a substance, such as mercury, increases as it moves up the food chain. In this case, small fish would accumulate mercury from their diet of algae and aquatic insects, and larger fish would accumulate even more mercury by eating smaller fish. Finally, fish-eating birds, which are at the top of the food chain, would consume large fish and thus have the highest concentration of mercury in their bodies.