Abstract
Mytilus galloprovincialis are commonly used as heavy metal biomonitors across the world. In the present work, the contents of three elements (Al, As, Li) were analyzed in Mytilus galloprovincialis using Inductively Coupled Plasma – Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES 720-ES). Samples of soft tissues are collected monthly in 2020, from three sites of the mussel farming facilities installed in the Al Hoceima Sea. The decreasing order of the mean element contents in mussel tissues was Al > As > Li. The lowest values of metallic elements were found in summer and the highest contents were indicated in winter. Positive correlations were indicated between these elements and chlorophyll a indicating the importance of diet for the bioaccumulation of metals in mussels. In addition, our results show that the temperature and the salinity increase with the decreasing of metals bioavailability suggesting the influence of chemical properties and physical kinetics changes in the solution. On the other hand, the strong correlations observed for metal contents in mussel tissues can be elucidated by their common sources. The results of this study may be useful in the use of M. galloprovincialis, in the environmental biomonitoring studies.
Highlights
The cities of the marine coastal environment have often been identified as hot spots for various types of pollution [1]
Heavy metals are a major anthropogenic contaminant in marine environment [4], because they cannot be degraded and persist in the environment; they accumulate in aquatic organisms [5]
Upon recognizing the danger of pollution from metallic elements and the negatives effects on the ocean’s ecosystems, new ways to monitor and control this contamination have been found such as Mussel Watch programs used to assess contamination of the coastal environment since that they were proposed in the 1970s [6]
Summary
The cities of the marine coastal environment have often been identified as hot spots for various types of pollution [1]. Mussels are considered to be one of the best bioindicators [7, 8] due to their widespread use for biomonitoring for coastal marine pollution studies [9, 10] Their specific life traits, such as a wide geographical distribution, a sessile, abundance, a relative resilience to contaminant and filter-feeding behaviour, display advantages for validating the use of mussels in metal monitoring studies [11]. Mussels such as Mytilus could accumulate substances in their tissues to levels significantly higher than the environment in which they live [12, 13].
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