Using Anguilla marmorata and Corbicula fluminea as combined bioindicators to assess the metallic pollution impacts on river environment
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Lo, Pan-Yun
Abstract
Many urban rivers have been seriously threatened by metallic pollution for decades due to population growth, industries and economic development. Biomonitoring using representative indicator species has been widely used to assess the pollution impacts in rivers because this approach provides time-integrated results of metal contamination in biota associated with the measurement of the environmental variables to enable a comprehensive understanding of pollution impacts to the river ecosystems. In this study, two bioindicator species including marbled eel (Anguilla marmorata) and Asian clam (Corbicula fluminea) were used in combination to reflect the metallic contamination in a typical urban river, Datun River from the northern Taiwan. Despite seasonal water-quality monitoring of Datun River has been conducted by Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) at an unpolluted site from the upstream section, neither environmental monitoring nor biomonitoring study has been undertaken at the urbanized downstream section with the industrial and residential riparian land-use. In this study, analyses were made for metal concentrations (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn) in different body parts of local-collected A. marmorata and C. fluminea that transplanted at the downstream end of Datun River for 24-days. Metal accumulation level in bioindicators was compared to metal concentration in river water that provided by EPA and measured in this study at the downstream end of Datun River. Results showed that metal pollutants in surface water were concentrated at the downstream end of Datun River comparing to the upstream EPA monitoring site. All study metals were found accumulated in the body of A. marmorata. However, significant difference in concentrations among different body parts was found for As, Cd, Cu, Mn and Zn (Kruskal-Wallis test, p<0.05). The main accumulation site of these metals in eel body included intestine for As (1.20 μg g-1 DW) and Zn (154 μg g-1 DW), liver for Cd (0.66 μg g-1 DW) and Cu (31.9 μg g-1 DW) and vertebrate for Mn (31.1 μg g-1 DW). On the other hand, transplanted C. fluminea showed significant accumulation of As, Cd, Cu, Mn, Pb and Zn while Cr and Ni were not accumulated in their body (Mann-Whitney comparison, p<0.05). We concluded that the use of two bioindicator species from different trophic levels, i.e. A. marmorata and C. fluminea, as combined bioindicators clearly indicated the presence of different bioavailable metallic contaminants and their biological impacts in Datun River based on their bioaccumulation levels in different body parts of A. marmorata and C. fluminea. Among different metals, As, Cd and Pb contaminants showed relatively higher potential to affect local biota. Finally, suggestion was made for further research on metal accumulation mechanisms in A. marmorata and C. fluminea to improve its practical utility on monitoring metallic pollution in river environment.
Subjects
bioaccumulation monitoring
river ecosystem
metal contamination
Anguillid species
marbled eel
Asiatic clam
Type
thesis
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