Goose barnacle Pollicipes pollicipes as biomonitor of metal contamination in the northwest coast of Portugal

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2012

Authors

Pedro A Reis (Author) Other; Maria Antonia Salgado (Author) ICBAS; Vitor Vasconcelos (Author) FCUP

Journal

Title: Environmental Monitoring and Assessment

Vol. 184

Pages: 6987-7000

ISSN: 0167-6369

Publisher: Springer Nature

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 16 Citations

Scopus - 18 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Natural sciences > Earth and related Environmental sciences

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-002-47P

DOI: 10.1007/s10661-011-2474-z

Abstract (EN): The main objective of this work was to assess the potential use of goose barnacle Pollicipes pollicipes as biomonitor of metal contamination in northwest (NW) coast of Portugal. The concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni and Zn were determined in coastal seawaters and tissues of P. pollicipes, which allowed establishing correlations between metals in coastal seawaters and P. pollicipes and calculating metal bioaccumulation factors (BAFs). The results of this study showed that P. pollicipes soft tissues can be used for monitoring metal contamination in these coastal seawaters: (1) there were significant correlations (p < 0.05) between metals in soft tissues and their concentrations in seawaters, except for Zn (p > 0.05); (2) soft tissues were sensitive to spatial variations of metal bioavailabilities and their concentrations ranged 0.70-2.22 mg Cd kg(-1), 0.49-1.40 mg Cr kg(-1), 1.37-2.07 mg Ni kg(-1), 2.4-3.3 mg Cu kg(-1), 5-59 mg Mn kg(-1), 134-578 mg Fe kg(-1)and 728-1,854 mg Zn kg(-1); (3) mean logarithmic bioaccumulation factors (log BAF) of Fe, Cd and Zn were higher, 5.57, 5.47 and 4.41, respectively, than mean log BAFs of Cr, Mn, Cu and Ni, 4.18, 4.14, 3.98 and 3.51, respectively. In contrary, P. pollicipes shell plates were not considered ideal material to monitor metal bioavailabilities in these coastal seawaters. Regarding the very high concentrations of Zn obtained in the coastal seawaters and P. pollicipes soft tissues, the NW coast of Portugal should be classified as "Class III/IV - Remarkably/Highly Polluted".

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 14