Detection of trace elements in freshwater macrobenthic invertebrates of different functional feeding guilds: A case study in Northeast Italy

Pastorino, Paolo; Bertoli, Marco; Squadrone, Stefania; Brizio, Paola; Piazza, Gabriele; Noser, Anna Giulia Oss; Prearo, Marino; Abete, Maria Cesarina; Pizzul, Elisabetta

doi:10.1016/j.ecohyd.2019.04.006

Cited by 28 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…Fe is an essential element for the physiology of freshwater organisms [59]. Our data are in-line with those reported by Pastorino et al [32] for macrobenthic communities from six watercourses in Northeast Italy. In our study, the Fe concentration was highest in the scrapers and lowest in the filterers from both sites.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Furthermore, they are abundant in fine and coarse sediments in rivers and streams [31,79]. Thus, they are suitable for bioaccumulation studies [7,30,32,79]. Metal accumulations in Chironomus sp.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous studies [31,32] found that collector-gatherers accumulate more metals than the other functional feeding groups, since their direct contact with sediments provide for greater uptakes of trace elements. However, those studies were focused only on a few heavy metals (e.g., As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn) [31] and analyzed the correlation between the collector-gather density and trace element accumulation [32]. Therefore, few field data are available about other feeding strategies (filterers, scrapers, and predators).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Various freshwater organisms have been selected to assess trace elements in watercourses among which, fish are the most widely used [28] also for risk consumption [29]. Additionally, macroinvertebrates have begun to be used as a suitable matrix [7,[30][31][32][33][34], since fish are absent from many polluted or unpolluted reaches of rivers, which limits the risk assessments of water and sediments [35].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Trace element concentrations in macroinvertebrates are directly related to the environmental levels [30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. Macroinvertebrates have a long vital cycle and are characterized by: differential adaptation to environmental alterations, limited mobility, and wide distribution [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. Furthermore, the relatively ease of sampling and identification makes macroinvertebrates particularly suitable as tracers of trace elements in freshwater [35].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Functional Feeding Groups of Aquatic Insects Influence Trace Element Accumulation: Findings for Filterers, Scrapers and Predators from the Po Basin

Pastorino

Zaccaroni

Doretto

et al. 2020

Biology

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For this study, we measured the concentrations of 23 trace elements (Al, As, Ba, Bi, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Fe, Ga, Hg, In, Li, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Se, Sr, Ti, Tl, V, and Zn) in the whole bodies of three functional feeding groups (FFG) (filterers—Hydropsychidae, scrapers—Heptageniidae, and predators—Odonata) of aquatic insects collected from two sites in the Po basin (Po Settimo and Malone Front, Northwest Italy) to determine: (a) how FFG influence trace element accumulations, (b) if scrapers accumulate higher elements compared to the other FFG, since they graze on periphyton, which represents one of the major sinks of metals, and (c) the potential use of macroinvertebrates to assess the bioavailability of trace elements in freshwater. The hierarchical clustering analysis generated three main groups based on trace element concentrations: the most abundant elements were Fe and Al, followed by Sr, In, Zn, V, Mo, and Cu. Tl was below the limit of detection (LOD) in all FFG. Ga was detected only in scrapers from both sites and Hg only in predators from Po Settimo. The principal component analysis showed that concentrations of Al, As, Bi, Cd, Co, Cr, Ga, Fe, In, Mn, Pb, Ni, and Sr were highest in scrapers, suggesting that trace elements accumulate from the ingestion of epilithic periphyton (biofilm). Odonata (predators) accumulate certain elements (Ba, Hg, Li, Se, V, Ti, and Zn) in higher concentrations by food ingestion composed of different aquatic organisms. Differently, Cu and Mo concentrations were the highest in filterers due to their bioavailability in the water column. Non-metric multidimensional scaling clearly differentiated the FFG based on their ability to accumulate trace elements. The findings from this study represent an important step toward the definition of an innovative approach based on trace element accumulation by macroinvertebrates.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%