Because food-chain length influences the bioaccumulation of contaminants, understanding the causes of variation in food-chain length will help us understand the variation of contaminant concentrations.

A central goal of conservation is to protect and preserve the ecosystem functions and processes upon which all life depends. Because food-chain length affects these ecosystem functions and processes, we need to understand how food-chain length varies and what causes this variation.

What happens is the color simply fades away and blends into the background.