Chapter 1 - Introduction

Abstract

Because of growing technical literature, greater availability of atomic absorption spectroscopy, and newer analytical techniques that accurately measure trace metal concentrations in tissues of marine plants and animals at biologically significant levels, there was a need to summarize all that was known about trace metals. The first objective was to summarize the available world literature on trace metal and metalloid concentrations in tissues of representative field populations of marine, estuarine, and oceanic elasmobranchs, fishes, reptiles, birds, and mammals; and their significance to organisms' health and their consumers. The second objective was to synthesize existing information on biological, chemical, and physical factors known to modify uptake, retention, and translocation of each element by selected groups of marine plants and animals under field and laboratory conditions. Recognition of the importance of these modifiers and their accompanying interactions is essential to the understanding of metal kinetics in marine systems and to the interpretation of baseline residue data in marine vertebrates. In many cases, the relations between concentrations of these elements in tissues have little relation to concentrations of the same element in the animal's immediate geophysical environment, including sediments, sediment interstitial waters, diet, and water column. The reasons for this are explored, and their role examined in formulation of proposed criteria to protect natural resources and their consumers. In all tables, concentrations shown in parentheses represent the range of values documented; others, the arithmetic means.