Abstract
This study investigates the influence of gender in the bioconcentration of essential and nonessential elements in different parts of Black Sea turbot (Psetta maxima maeotica) body, from an area considered under high anthropogenic pressure (the Constanta City Black Sea Coastal Area in Romania). A number of 13 elements (Ca, Mg, Na, K, Fe, Zn, Mn, Cu, Ni, Cr, As, Pb and Cd) were measured in various sample types: muscle, stomach, stomach content, intestine, intestine content, gonads, liver, spleen, gills and caudal fin. Turbot adults (4–5 years old) were separated, according to their gender, into two groups (20 males, 20 females, respectively), and a high total number of samples (1200 from both groups) were prepared and analyzed, in triplicate, with Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometry and High-Resolution Continuum Source Atomic Absorption Spectrometry with Graphite Furnace techniques. The results were statistically analyzed in order to emphasize the bioconcentration of the determined elements in different tissues of wild turbot males vs. females, and also to contribute to an upgraded characterization of the Romanian Black Sea Coast, around Constanta City, in terms of heavy metals pollution. The essential elements Mg and Zn have different roles in the gonads of males and females, as they were the only elements with completely different patterns between the analyzed groups of specimens. The concentrations of studied elements in muscle were not similar with the data provided by literature, suggesting that chemistry of the habitat and food plays a major role in the availability of the metals in the body of analyzed fish species. The gender influenced the bioaccumulation process of all analyzed elements in most tissues since turbot male specimens accumulated higher concentration of metals compared to females. The highest bioaccumulation capacity in terms of Ca, Mg, Na, Ni, As, Zn and Cd was registered in caudal fin, liver and intestine tissues. Also, other elements such as K, Fe, Cu and Mn had the highest bioaccumulation in their muscle, spleen, liver and gills tissues. The concentrations of toxic metals in Black Sea turbot from this study were lower in the muscle samples compared with the studies conducted in Turkey, suggesting that the anthropogenic activity in the studied area did not pose a major impact upon the habitat contamination.
Highlights
Essential metals have a role in biological functions, but in higher concentrations they may become toxic by disrupting metabolic activities [1,2]
The Pb and Cr were below the detection limit of quantification (LOQ) for the calibration curve method (LOQ Pb-0.032 μg·L−1, LOQ Cr-0.3 μg·L−1) in all analyzed samples, excepting for the stomach samples, where Cr was measured
The bioconcentration of essential metals in specific organs was related to their biological function
Summary
Essential metals have a role in biological functions, but in higher concentrations they may become toxic by disrupting metabolic activities [1,2]. According to Gati et al (2016), sediment samples with a higher value than four of the probable effect concentration quotient (PEC-Q) are more likely to have acute or toxic effects on benthic organisms [3] In this way, integrated measures for toxicological risk ranking in fish communities were developed [5]. The physiological role of essential elements such as K, P, Na, Mg and Ca is related to skeletal structure, the maintenance of the colloidal system and regulation of the acid–base equilibrium [22] Their concentrations in fish tissue are influenced by different factors, such as species ecology, feeding behavior, environmental variations and conditions [23]. The marine food webs, habitat and geographical origin are important factors that influence pollutants excretion or bioaccumulation processes in aquatic organisms [24]
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