Turkish Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
2012, Vol 12, Num, 3 (Pages: 603-612)
May Simultaneous Exposure to Different Heavy Metals Influence the Bioaccumulation of Each Metal by Littorina saxatilis (Gastropoda; Littoriniidae)
Arash Javanshir 1
1 University of Tehran, Faculty of Natural Resources, Department of Fisheries, PO Box: 4314, Karaj, Iran
DOI :
10.4194/1303-2712-v12_3_07
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Laboratory assessments of toxicity and bioaccumulation of heavy metals have been concentrated on the accumulation of
these metal ions when exposed singly to the test organisms. However, under the natural environmental settings, the metals are
never present in isolation and may interact with each other, therefore justifying the need to study the influence of joint
application of metals on accumulated levels in exposed animals. In this study, exposure of the periwinkle Littorina saxatilis to
sublethal concentrations (equivalent to 0.1 and 0.01 of 96 h LC50) of heavy metals revealed that they were bioaccumulative
varying amounts, depending on the type of metal, exposure period and their concentration in the test media. While Zn and Pb
ion accumulation increased steadily with exposure time, the amounts of Cu accumulated fluctuated regularly over the 30-day
experimental period. The levels of Zn, Cu and Cd bioaccumulated over the 30-day experimental period were reduced by over
2-6 folds (with bioaccumulation ratio values ranging from 0.15 to 0.81) when compared to concentrations of the respective
metals accumulated during single bioaccumulation studies. However, Pb concentrations accumulated during the joint action
studies increased nearly 2-fold (bioaccumulation ratio range 1.36 to 2.0-fold).
Keywords :
Periwinkle, filtration rate, absorption rate, Persian Gulf, metal pollution