What is biomagnification? How is it affecting polar bears, as well as the Inuit people?

Question

What is biomagnification? How is it affecting polar bears, as well as the Inuit people?

Answer 1

"Biomagnification is the bioaccumulation of a substance up the food chain by transfer of residues of the substance in smaller organisms that are food for larger organisms in the chain...Biomagnification can result in higher concentrations of the substance than would be expected if water were the only exposure mechanism"

http://toxics.usgs.gov/definitions/bioma...

Perhaps the best know example is the effect of DDT on Falcon eggs. The concentration of DDT was so large in this top of the food chain bird that it's eggshells became too thin to allow the chicks to develop.

Polar bears and Inuit at also the end of the food chain so the accumulation of substances such as  DDT, heavy metals, PBC's, selenium, cyanide, etc. can end up in them.

There is an article that mentions polar bears:

"Concentrations of brominated flame retardants (BFRs), including polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs) and hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), were investigated in an arctic marine food chain consisting of four invertebrate species: polar cod (Boreogadus saida), ringed seals (Pusa hispida), and polar bears (Ursus maritimus)"

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16986...

There are studies on Inuits. One article is listed below.

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