Chapter 21: Water Pollution
3. This article deals with a regional environmental issue.
4. An excessive amount of mercury has entered the food chain of white ibises has effected their mating behavior drastically. Studies show that the male ibises that had excessive mercury intake chose other males instead of females as their mating partners. They did everything a normal male and female would do even though they produced no eggs. The mercury has made its way into the food chain by industrial processes such as waste incineration. A controlled experiment was done which took an equal number of males and females and placed them together but feed certain ibises low, medium, or high mercury containing food. A control was also set up with mercury free food. This was done to show the variations of mercury in the wild. Once the birds reached sexual maturity at a year old, homosexuality increased significantly in the 3 groups that had mercury in their food.
5. This is a big problem because if the homosexuality continues the number of birds within the species will decline and may even become threatened if the number gets too low. This is all due to our industrialization and carelessness of where we dispose of wastes. If we each took a step to make sure we properly dispose of things and do what we can to make sure excess mercury and other harmful pollutants do not end up in lakes we can save many different species and preserve biodiversity for years to come.
6.Copulated-To engage in sexual intercourse.
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