Transplanted aquatic mosses and freshwater mussels to investigate the trace metal contamination in the rivers Meurthe and Plaine, France

Abstract

Aquatic mosses Cinclidotus nigricans and freshwater mussels Dreissena polymorpha were transferred at eight monitoring sites along the rivers Meurthe and Plaine (northeastern France) for a biological assessment of the trace metal contamination. Autochthonous Fontinalis antipyretica mosses were collected at the end of the experiment. The major contaminants detected in the organisms were Cr, Ni, Pb and Zn. A comparison between the native and the introduced bryophytes showed that the transfer technique was preferable to assess the recent pollution situation. In the case of the transplanted mosses, high initial levels of strongly bound Pb and Zn prevented an accurate assessment of the contamination with these two metals, since only little depuration occurred at unpolluted sites. A good qualitative agreement was observed between the indications obtained from the mosses and those obtained from the mussels, suggesting that both are suitable indicators for monitoring purposes. The observed quantitative disparities were attributed to inherent differences in the accumulation strategies of each sentinel organism. Due to specific uptake and depuration kinetics, mosses and mussels appeared to be complementary in the detection of various types of pollution.

Palladio, an Index of Trace Element Alteration for the River Bacchiglione Based on Rhynchostegium riparioides Moss Bags

“…Until now, moss bags have been employed in biomonitoring actions at few stations (5-20) and in the absence of specific indices to interpret results (Bruns et al 1997;Carballeira et al 2001;Cenci 2000;Cesa et al 2006Cesa et al , 2009aClaveri et al 1993Fernandez et al 2006;Figueira and Ribeiro 2005;Lee et al 2002;Martinez et al 1993;Mersch and Johansson 1993;Mersch and Reichard 1998;Mouvet 1984;Rasmussen and Andersen 1999;Samecka-Cymerman et al 2005;Vàzquez et al 2000;Wehr et al 1987;Yurukova and Gecheva 2003). The sampling density and intensity in such case studies were calibrated for small-scale investigations, data comparison with autochthonous bryophytes or physiological experiments rather than for extended environmental surveys.…”

“…Several authors in literature recommend the use of transplants, which may be easily transferred from an unpolluted spring to the survey area, both attached to their original substrata (Wehr et al 1987), inside nylon or plastic bags (Bruns et al 1997;Cenci 2000;Kelly et al 1987;Martinez et al 1993;Mersch and Johansson 1993;Mersch and Reichard 1998;Samecka-Cymerman et al 2005) or other devices like plastic tubes (Figueira and Ribeiro 2005) and plastic or metallic cages (Rasmussen and Andersen 1999). The so-called moss bags technique provides many advantages compared to the sampling of autochthonous individuals: use of a unique selected species, availability of an adequate amount of material whatever the site and concentrations referred to a measurable exposure time (Mersch and Claveri 1998;Mouvet 1986).…”

Inland water quality monitoring with native bryophytes: A methodological review

“…Diffusive Gradients in Thin film) has been recently studied (Diviš et al, 2007(Diviš et al, , 2012 and different organisms (e.g. bryophytes, algae, mussels) have been used as biomonitors of contamination for decades (Burton and Peterson, 1979;Kelly and Whitton, 1989;Mersch and Johansson, 1993). In the current review, we apply the term 'bryomonitoring' in the context of biomonitoring and the underlying organisms (i.e.…”

Moss bags as indicators of trace element contamination in Pre-alpine streams

“…Biomonitoring freshwaters with moss bags was performed in different European countries, in particular France (Mersch & Johansson 1993; and Germany (Bruns et al 1997). In Italy, Cenci (2000) successfully employed transplants of Fontinalis antipyretica Hedw.…”