Particle (ecology)

As these toxins are passed up the food chain they accumulate in fatty tissue and become increasingly concentrated in predators (see bioaccumulation).

It takes a few days until plankton organisms have filtered the particles and incorporated the toxins into their body fat and tissue: In the southwards flow of the waters of the Hudson off the coast of New Jersey, the highest levels of mercury in copepods have not been found directly in front of the river off New York but 150 km south, off Atlantic City.

Many copepods are then captured by mysidae, krill and smallest fish like the juveniles of atlantic herring - and in each step of the foodchain the toxin concentrations increase by the factor of 10.

To display the total area of this fascinating particle filtration structure one would have to tile 7500 times this image.

These 3 cm long animals live close to shore and hover above the sea floor, constantly collecting particles.