Marine organisms as heavy metal bioindicators in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman

Abstract

In the present study, cadmium and lead concentrations were compared in barnacles, ghost shrimps, polychaetes, bivalves, and sediment from ten different locations along the intertidal zone of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. The results revealed significant differences in the heavy metal concentrations between the organisms with barnacles showing, by far, the highest metal concentrations. The bioaccumulation factor of Cd in different animals follows this pattern with barnacles>bivalves>polychaetes>ghost shrimps, while the pattern for Pb was barnacles>polychaetes>bivalves>ghost shrimps. In most of the stations, sediments showed the lowest lead and cadmium concentrations. Therefore, it is concluded that barnacles with Pb concentrations between 0.17 and 2,016.1 μg/g and Cd concentrations ranging from 0.4 to 147.1 μg/g are the best organisms to be employed in monitoring programs designed to assess pollution with bioavailable metals in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

Distribution of five toxic heavy metals in biotic and abiotic constituents of the Negombo Lagoon, Sri Lanka

“…the shedding of leaves or death, and through the addition of faecal matter (James & Bartlett, 1984). In the present study, from among the biotic components, leaves of Bruguiera gymnorhiza accumulated the least amounts of a given heavy metal, which is consistent with reported trends in other studies, for instance in the mangrove Avicennia marina in the Persian Gulf (Amoozadeh et al, 2014). Thus, a lower amount of pollutants in the leaves of a plant, in comparison to the bark, as observed in the present study, is acceptable given its much shorter life span.…”

Environmental parasitology: Parasites as accumulation bioindicators in the marine environment

“…In order to overcome these limitations different organisms, so called sentinels or accumulation bioindicators, are commonly applied in environmental impact studies (e.g. Amoozadeh et al, 2014;Zhou et al, 2008). Accumulation indicators are organisms which are able to concentrate certain substances in their tissues to levels significantly higher than those in the ambient environment (Beeby, 2001).…”

Mechanical Analysis of a Scraping Method to Remove Attached Barnacles

“…The organisms grow on the metal surface, produce corrosive substances, or enhance electrochemical corrosion, causing local corrosion such as pitting and crevice corrosion on the surface of the steel structure. In this study, barnacles were used as the most typical and representative specimen to investigate, which play a crucial role in marine fouling damage to marine engineering facilities [4][5][6].…”