Biomagnification process occurs when certain toxic chemicals and pollutants such as heavy metals, pesticides or polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) compounds go up the food chain by working their way through the environment and into the soil or the water systems after which they are eaten by aquatic animals or plants, .
namely mercury, arsenic, pesticides such as DDT, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) compounds which are then taken up by organisms because of the food they consume or the intoxication of their environment.
These materials are highly present in a variety of household and industrial chemicals. The harmful substances then build up inside the organism’s cells. When organisms in the higher food chain consume the organisms containing the toxins below their trophic levels, the toxins gradually become concentrated in the higher food chain. Because this is a repetitive process in the ecosystem and throughout the entire food chain, the higher organisms are the ones that will accumulate most of the toxins.