This lesson will increase your knowledge of concepts

covered in the following TEKS for biology:

3.a – Analyze, review, and critique scientific explanations, including
hypotheses and theories, as to their strengths and weaknesses using scientific
evidence and information
3.c – Evaluate impact of research on scientific thought, society, and the
environment
3.f – Research and describe the history of biology and contributions of
scientists
4.b – Investigate and identify cellular processes
6.d – Compare genetic variations observed in plants and animals
7.b – Illustrate the results of natural selection in the speciation, diversity,
phylogeny, adaptation, behavior and extinction
 This lesson will increase your knowledge of concepts
covered in the following TEKS for biology:

9.d – Analyze the flow of matter and energy through different trophic levels
and between organisms and the physical environment
11.b – Investigate and identify how organisms respond to external stimulation
11.c – Analyze the importance of nutrition, environmental conditions and
physical exercise on health
11.d – Summarize the role of microorganisms in maintaining and disrupting
equilibrium including diseases in plants and animals and decay in an ecosystem
12.b – Interpret interactions among organisms exhibiting predation, parasitism,
commensalism, and mutualism
12.e – Investigate and explain interactions in an ecosystem including food
chains, food webs, and food pyramids
 Previous Lesson

Agricultural Systems and

Transgenic Organisms
 Question: Many
of us take
agriculture for
granted. How
has it affected
Photos courtesy of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department human history?
Development of agricultural systems made
advanced civilization possible

Photo courtesy of Texas

Department of Transportation

10,000 BC
Today
Question: When did domestication
begin and what was the first animal
domesticated?
 Dates (BC) and Places of First
Evidence for Domestication
from Diamond, J., Guns, Germs and Steel, Random House, 1997

Dog 10,000 BC SW. Asia,China, North America

Sheep8,000 BC SW. Asia
Goat 8,000 BC SW. Asia
Pig 8,000 BC China, SW. Asia
Cow 6,000 BC SW. Asia, India, North Africa
Horse 4,000 BC Ukraine
Donkey 4,000 BC Egypt
 •The dog was one
of the first animals
domesticated

•10,000 years of
domestication may
explain why dogs
are man’s best
friend

From: Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Question: Why is there a controversy
over using grain to fatten cattle?

From: Time, November 8, 1999

Many more people
could be fed by the
grain used to feed the
cattle than can be fed
by the cattle
themselves

This is because
productive energy is
diminished with each
trophic level

Based on: Scientific American, September 1976

Question: What is good and bad
about genetically engineered
agricultural plants?
 Genetically Engineered Plants
• The Good: Crops can be engineered to
have important components of diet,
contain medically important proteins, and
to be pest resistant
• The Bad: Plants could contain pesticides
that would harm humans and wildlife, or
proteins that could cause allergies in
humans. Genetics could escape to
traditional crops.
 Today’s Lesson

Pesticides and
Organic Farming
 Overview of Lesson
•Pests, DDT and biomagnification
•DDT, eagles and falcons
•Endangered Species Act
•Organic farming
 Domestic crops were
selected for maximum
productivity and had little
natural pest resistance
Potato famine of Ireland was caused by
genetically uniform crops and lack of
pesticides to protect them
Blight hits
potatoes, 1845

Based on: Population Reports, May 1992

 Today’s Pests

Pests attack and

eat our food crops

This problem is
due, in part, to not
selecting for pest
resistance during
domestication

Based on: National Geographic, February 1980

DDT was invented in the
1940’s and viewed as:
- miracle for farmers
- and safe
“The most discussed of the new insecticides is
dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, shortened to
DDT but also called Guesarol. This compound has
remarkable power to kill insects, particularly body
lice-the ‘cooties’ of World War I. The prevalence of
typhus, carried by body lice, in the Mediterranean
theater of this war has emphasized its value.
DDT’s effectiveness in war may well be
overshadowed by its value in peace. Painstaking
investigations have shown it to be signally
effective against many of the most destructive
insects that feed upon crops.”

Scientific American, July 1944.

 Arial crop sprayers
were used to spray
tons of DDT on
crops across the
U.S.

Photo courtesy of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

Pests became resistant to DDT

Based on: National Geographic

 Pesticide Resistance
In the beginning, most
pests were sensitive to
DDT but a few were
resistant

The resistant forms

survived and reproduced

In the end, most pests

were resistant to DDT
Based on: National Geographic, February 1980
 Biomagnification

The concentration of
pesticides in higher levels of
food chains
Trophic Levels

Based on: Mader, S., Inquiry Into Life, McGraw-Hill

Most food chains consist of four trophic levels

 Energy Available
to Consumers at
Next Trophic Level
Energy Lost by
Death and Decay

Energy Lost by Energy Lost by

Excretion Respiration

Energy Lost by
Egestion of Feces

Energy Ingested
 DDT in Food Chain

DDT is concentrated as
it moved up food chain

This is because energy

is lost (from respiration)
as go up food chain but
DDT is not

Based on: Campbell et al, Biology: Concepts

and Connections, Benjamin Cummings
 Overview of Lesson
•Pests, DDT and biomagnification
•DDT, eagles and falcons
•Endangered Species Act
•Organic foods
 Bald Eagle

•Once was widely

distributed over U.S.

•As a top carnivore it

feeds on fish

•Swoops down and

captures fish off the
surface of the water
Photo courtesy of Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department
•Scientists discovered that DDT was
concentrated in the bald eagle

•DDT affected the eagle’s ability to reproduce

Photos courtesy of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

Scientists found
that the eagle eggs
had thin egg shells
and broke easily

Nests contained
broken, rotten eggs

The number of
young produced per
breeding
pair was reduced
 Population of adult
eagles declined to 4,000
and the eagle was listed
as “Endangered”

Photo courtesy of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
banned DDT in 1972

Photo courtesy of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

Eagle reproduction before and after DDT ban

Based on: Grier, J., Science, 1982

Eagle populations increased rapidly and
the eagle is now listed as “Threatened”

From: Time, July 11, 1994

Peregrine Falcon •Occurred naturally
over most of
continental U.S.

•Nests on cliffs

•Keen eyesight
(if human, could read
newspaper print at 110 yards)

•Feeds on other birds,

knocking them out of
the sky at 200 m.p.h.
Photo courtesy of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
 DDT & Peregrine
•After DDT was introduced
in 1940s, DDT weakened
the birds’ egg shells,
devastating the population

•By early 1970s, the entire

U.S. population was down
to 12 breeding pairs
Photos courtesy of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

•Peregrines were declared

federally endangered and
DDT banned

•Peregrines were bred in

captivity and reintroduced
successfully in cities
 Overview of Lesson
•Pests, DDT and biomagnification
•DDT, eagles and falcons
•Endangered Species Act
•Organic foods
“In the United States at least 500
species and subspecies of plants
and animals have become extinct
since the 1500s.”

Douglas Chadwick, H., National Geographic, March 1995

Endangered Species Act of 1973
• The Secretary of the Interior
determines whether a species is
endangered or threatened

• The Secretary develops and

implements recovery plans for the
conservation of endangered species
 Definitions - Endangered
Species Act
• Endangered Species - Any species that is
in danger of extinction throughout all or a
significant portion of its range

• Threatened Species - Any species that is

likely to become an endangered species
within the foreseeable future
 OTHER COMEBACKS
ESA is having Species removed from
some success endangered list or
reclassified as threatened
date of
change

Gray whale 1994

2009 Stats (California population)

Animals 613 Aleutian Canada 1990

goose
Plants 747
American alligator 1987
endangered 1985
Brown pelican
species in the 1984
Utah prairie dot
U.S. Greenback cutthroat 1978
trout
Based on: Time, July 11, 1994
 Overview of Lesson
•Pests, DDT and biomagnification
•DDT, eagles and falcons
•Endangered Species Act
•Organic foods
 Defining “Organic”

Foods produced without

hormones, antibiotics,
herbicides, insecticides,
chemical fertilizers,
genetic modification or
germ-killing radiation

The USDA labels such

foods “certified organic”

From: Newsweek, Sept. 30, 2002

Availability of Organic Products

Based on: Newsweek,

Newsweek, Sept. 30, 2002
 Unanswered Questions about
Certified Organic Foods
Are organic food safer than other foods?

Do organic foods taste better?

Are organic foods worth the extra costs?

Are people eating organic diets healthier than

people with conventional diets?
 Can organic farming help
the environment?

Pesticides now kill 67 million American

birds per year

The Mississippi River dumps enough

fertilizer into the Gulf of Mexico to maintain
a 60 mile “dead zone” devoid of fish
 Pesticides and Human Health
India suffering from human health
consequences of pesticide use

•Infertility
•Cancer related deaths increasing
•Childhood cancers
•Mental retardation

Research shows pesticides and fertilizers

in the groundwater.
 Next Lesson

The Water Cycle