A Comparison of the Metal Content of Some Benthic Species from Coastal Waters of the Florida Panhandle Using High-Resolution Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) Analysis

Abstract

Benthic marine invertebrates, sediment, and water from several locations along the Florida panhandle coast from St. Joseph Bay in the west to the mouth of the Wakulla River in the east, including from several river estuaries, were analyzed by double focusing ICP-MS (Finnigan MAT ELEMENT) for Cd, Hg, Pb, Cu, Zn, and As. All were detected in all samples. Sponges generally contained higher levels of Cd than other species. Microciona prolifera sponges from St. Joseph Bay had higher As levels (8.1-13.6 microg/g dry weight) than sponges collected from Dickerson Bay or Appalachee Bay (2.20-9.7) and higher Cd levels (0.43-0.73) than that of a single Microciona specimen collected from Dickerson Bay (0.29). Water content of As was about 20-30x higher in St. Joseph Bay than in any other location, and sediment levels of Cd were about 9x higher. Cu and Zn were higher in organic sediment from St. Joseph Bay than they were in other areas. The Pb content of several sponge species and two of tunicates was considerably higher than in other species. The uptake of most metals in this study (except As) appeared to be affected by the metal, genus, species, and location as much as by levels in either water or sediment. In general, sponges and tunicates seemed to accumulate higher levels than most other species, possibly a function of high filtration rates. The ICP-MS method is useful for environmental studies, but the instrument requires considerable maintenance.

The Elemental Composition of Demospongiae from the Red Sea, Gulf of Aqaba

“…The biological roles ascribed to Cu and its ability to adopt various redox states [39] may account for the high variation in its concentration between the species studied here. This ranged from 2.7 g/Kg for S. clavatus to 38.6 g/Kg for Haliclona sp.2, a range comparable to values recorded from species all over the world [9], [40], [17], [41].…”

“…In some cases a range of concentrations was published, but no statistical analysis was performed [6], [8], [9]. This is due to the relatively large effect of the trace metals content of sediment particles found inside sponges, causing the geological contribution to the measurement to mask the biological one.…”

“…We hypothesized that a study of the elemental content of 16 common sponge species would result in the elucidation of species-specific differences. Previous research has reported large variation in sponge metal content, possibly a result of sediment content, making standard statistical analyses difficult to perform [6], [26], [8], [9]. We therefore employed a combined use of correlation matrixes and analysis of variation.…”

Trace metal concentrations in the tropical sponge Spheciospongia vagabunda at a sewage outfall: synchrotron X-ray imaging reveals the micron-scale distribution of accumulated metals

“…The concentrations measured were high compared with previously published ranges of element concentrations in other sponge species (Verdenal et al, 1985;Denton et al, 1999;Philp et al, 2003;Negri et al, 2006;Rao et al, 2009). Concentrations of these elements were also found to be substantially higher than for other sponges from Darwin Harbour (Paratetilla sp., Iotrochota sp.…”

Contamination levels for lead, cadmium and mercury in marine gastropods, echinoderms and tunicates

“…Accordingly, sea urchins are considered to contribute significantly to the transfer of metals and other pollutants to higher trophic levels (Muir et al, 1999). The ascidians have been investigated for use in biomonitoring studies and have been shown to accumulate a range of metals such as vanadium (V), Cu, Pb and Zn (Denton, Concepcion, Wood, & Morrison, 2006;Philp, Leung, & Bradley, 2003). These tunicates have been used to compare availability of metals such as Cu and Pb in contaminated and natural harbours (De Caralt, López-Legentil, Tarjuelo, Uriz, Turon, 2002).…”