Environmental Risk Assessment of Heavy Metal Contaminants in San Diego Bay – Bioaccumulation of Copper in Mytilus Galloprovincialis

Author: Tamar Kerdikoshvili
Keywords: Heavy Metals, Environmental Contamination
Annotation:

Intensification of industrial processes throughout the recent decades increased the concentration of dangerous pollutants in the environment. Among those dangerous pollutants are so-called “heavy metals” that are composed of metallic trace element subgroups such as metals and metalloids among which are unstable trace metallic radionuclides too. Whether radioactive or not, trace metal elements can affect the environment and living species as they tend to bioaccumulate in organic tissues and cause adverse effects such as genetic mutations in species, biodiversity loss, and major public health concerns. Biological organisms living in a marine environment such as diverse species of bivalve Mollusca including mussels, oysters, and scallops accumulate contamination through laterally compressed bodies and therefore, are often considered sentinel species for the assessment of contamination. In this framework, marine species are often used in laboratory-scale experiments for trace metal pollution assessment. We are considering here in vivo model system that is playing a key role in the trophic chain and "sentinel" species: the bivalve mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis to assess the accumulation of copper together with direct measurement of copper concentration from water samples in San Diego Bay. The concept of concentration factor CF (the ratio of the concentration of a contaminant substance in biota and the concentration of the same substance in surrounding water) was used to characterize the accumulation rate. Under the scope of the scientific research project, copper concentration was measured from 13 geographical locations in San Diego Bay.

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