The worst impact on the biosphere results from increases in mortality, decreases in survival rate of growing organisms and growth rate, and increased incidence of sudden fluctuations in these indexes. Ordinarily organisms relatively high in the food chain have generally developed adaptive responses to neutralize and counteract the impact of pollution. Once pollution has taken place, reactions at the cellular level are initiated to deactivate and excrete particular constituents of pollutants. Moreover, when mortality at the population level in single species increases, the mortality may be compensated by increased fecundity.
