Question

A non-biodegradable toxic chemical has entered into the food chain. Which type of food habit will you suggest to a man, vegetarian or non-vegetarian? Explain with the help of the food chain. The food chain which you would suggest, is advantageous in another aspect. How?

Answer 1

Hint: A non biodegradable chemical are the chemicals which can not be broken down into simpler chemicals by natural organisms. These chemicals are toxic for nature as well as human beings and cause pollution.
Food chain is a network of links starting from the producer organism and ending at the predator species. Each level of the food chain represents a different trophic level.

Complete answer:
Vegetarian food chains will be suggested in case of entry of non-biodegradable toxic chemicals into the food chain. As the non- vegetarian food may contain toxic chemicals which cannot be washed by simple water or by cooking. Some toxic chemicals are unrecognizable which further affect the health of a human being.
Non-biodegradable chemicals get concentrated at every trophic level by the process of biological concentration. As the concentration increases with the number of trophic levels in the food chain,man will get a higher concentration of chemicals in the non-vegetarian food chain than in a vegetarian food chain. Example:
Vegetarian food chain:

Plants	Man
(5 ppm of DDT)	(20 ppm of DDT)

Non-vegetarian food chain:

Plants.	Goat.	Man
(5 ppm of DDT)	(240 ppm of DDT)	(1500 ppm of DDT)

Here,ppm stands for parts per million and DDT stands for dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane which is an insecticide transferred from one trophic level to another.
The vegetarian food chain is advantageous in terms of energy available to man because it has less number of trophic levels. As 90% of energy is lost in the environment, at every level the lesser number of the trophic level will result in lesser energy loss.

Note:
One must eat healthy food with minerals and proteins to keep ourselves healthy and maintain a food chain. There should be less trophic levels in the food chain as it decreases the rate of DDT transfer to human beings.