Monitoring heavy-metal pollution of the coastal waters of Amursky Bay (Sea of Japan) using the brown alga Sargassum miyabei Yendo, 1907

Abstract

The contents of iron, zinc, nickel, copper, cadmium, and lead in the thalli of the brown alga Sargassum miyabei Yendo, 1907 from the Amursky Bay were determined. The ranges of teh concentrations were as follows: Fe, 166–709; Zn, 4.7–55.7; Ni, 6.48–15.94; Cu, 2.5–22.4; Cd, 3.13–6.25; and Pb, 0.22–19.20 µg/g of dry mass. Based on the data on heavy-metal contents in S. miyabei, the changes in trace-element composition of macrophytes from the mid-1990s until 2011 have been analyzed. It was found that the content of Pb in Sargassum thalli decreased significantly (p = 0.001) almost everywhere; at some stations the Zn concentration decreased by 1.2–2.5 times and that of Cu decreased by 1.1–2.8 times (as a trend). At the same time, high concentrations of Ni and Cd were revealed in S. miyabei from the area of the CHP-1 station, which runs on liquid fuel. In Sargassum that was sampled in the recreational area at the exit of the bay and the entrance cape of the inner bay of the Port Vladivostok, the contents of Zn and Cu increased by 2 times (as a trend), which is obviously caused by an increase of recreational pressure (domestic sewage).