Over time, heavy metals build up in the tissues of organisms by what process?

• Correct Answer: bioaccumulation
• biosynthesis
• solidification
• oxygenation

Explanation: Heavy metals, such as mercury and lead, are toxic to living things. They can enter food chains from the atmosphere. The metals build up in the tissues of organisms by bioaccumulation . Bioaccumulation is illustrated in Figure below . As heavy metals are passed up a food chain they accumulate. Imagine a low-level consumer eating a producer. That consumer takes in all of the heavy metals from all of the producers that it eats. Then a higher-level consumer eats it and accumulates all the heavy metals from all of the lower-level consumers that it eats. In this way, heavy metals may accumulate. At high levels in the food chain, the heavy metals may be quite become quite concentrated.

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