Question

Assertion (A): In a food chain consisting of frog, peacock, grass, snake and grasshopper, the minimum concentrations of harmful chemicals will be in the body of peacock.

Reason (R): The increase in concentration of harmful chemical substances like pesticides in the body of living organisms at each trophic level of a food chain is called biological magnification.

Options

• Both A and R are true and R is correct explanation of the assertion.

• Both A and R are true but R is not the correct explanation of the assertion.

• A is true but R is false.

• A is false but R is true.

Answer 1

A is false but R is true.

Explanation:

In the food chain Grass → Grasshopper → Frog → Snake → Peacock, the peacock is at the highest trophic level. Due to biological magnification, the concentration of harmful chemicals such as pesticides increases at each successive trophic level. Therefore, the peacock will have the maximum concentration, not the minimum. Therefore, Assertion (A) is false.

The increase in the concentration of harmful chemical substances like pesticides in the bodies of organisms at each successive trophic level is called biological magnification (biomagnification). Therefore, Reason (R) is true.

Hence, A is false but R is true.