Pesticides

Casestudy
 (a) … in what circumstances
would each organism (fig3) be
considered a pest, if any.
•Dandelions - unsightly.
•Grasshopper / Mice – numbers increase
to become a pest
•Deer – consume all the grasses
(b) … how might the removal
of one of the pests affect the
food web?
•…lead to an insufficient food
supply for their consumers.
 (c) … short-term benefits of
using pesticides:

• an increase in crop yield.

•Preventing loss of stored grains
•Preventing allergies (moulds,
mildews)
 (d) … why might chemical taken
from plants be less risky to
humans and the ecosystem?

• they might be less dangerous

because they are more easily
broken down; and do not build up
in the bodies of consumers
(bioamplification)
 (e) … the difference between
a pyramid of biomass and a
pyramid of bioamplification.
• the biomass graph would have a
large base and gradually decrease in
width. The pyramid of bioamplification
would have a narrow base and
increase in width each step upwards.
 (f) … predict how scavengers
might be affect by
bioamplification.

… if the scavenger consumes

from dead organisms from higher
trophic levels, there would be a
greater amount of bioamplification.
 (g) Why is the fact that other
countries have not banned DDT
of concern to Canadians?

… DDT can be transferred to

organisms in Canada by migrating
fish, sea mammals, and birds.
Also by imported foodstuffs.
 (h) … how might breast-
feeding affect the DDT levels
in mother & baby?

… DDT is fat-soluble and can

be found in breast milk and
would be passed to the baby.
(i) Why are newer pesticides less
harmless to ecosystems than
DDT used in the 1950s and 60s?

… the newer pesticides are

water-soluble (not fat-soluble)
and does not accumulate in fat
tissue.
(j) … how does less competition for
food help increase the reproductive
success the insects that remain after
the use of pesticide?
… as there is more food for
those remaining, they will more
likely breed and more of their
offspring would survive.
(k) … which decade shows the
greatest increase in pesticide-
resistant species? Why?

… between 1970 and 1980 …

because the # of resistant
species increases with length
of time the pesticide is used.
(l) … why haven’t the spruce bud
worm been eliminated after 40
years of spraying?

… the budworms have

become resistant to all
available pesticides.
 (m) … why haven’t they used
extremely high concentrations of
insecticide?

… this would kill not only the

budworms but also kill other
possibly helpful organisms.
 (n) … what groups have
benefited from the NB spray
program?

… loggers, lumber and paper-

mill workers.
 (o) … what groups might have
suffered from the NS decision not
to spray?

… loggers, lumber and paper-

mill workers … First Nation
groups who use the forest.
(p) … what are the benefits of not
spraying?

… the ecosystem adjusted and

a natural recovery occured.
(q) … why is DDT more dangerous to
freshwater ecosystems than the
newer water-soluble pesticides?

… DDT builds up in fat tissues

(bioamplication) causing problems
in top predators (falcons). The
newer pesticides are broken down
the kidneys and passed in urine.
(r) … female eagles have slightly
lower levels of toxins than male
eagles - why?
… fat-soluble toxins are released
from the female during egg-laying.
Males have no means to release
toxins during their 25-year
lifespans.
Continued (r) … compare egg-
laying in eagles to
breast-feeding in humans?

… human mothers will release

toxins stored in fat tissues in their
breast milk. However, these
toxins would move to their babies.
(s) Draw a food web, showing the movement
of pesticides in a lake ecosystem from aquatic
insects to the bald eagle?
Herons ducks hawks gulls

Larger fish

Medium-size fish

Insects shellfish minnows

. Zooplankton

phytoplankton