Marine environment status assessment based on macrophytobenthic plants as bio-indicators of heavy metals pollution

Mar Pollut Bull. 2017 May 15;118(1-2):281-288. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.02.075. Epub 2017 Mar 8.

Abstract

The main aim of study was to develop the environmental quality standards (EQSMP) for selected heavy metals: Pb, Cd, Hg and Ni bioaccumulated in the tissues of marine macrophytobenthic plants: Chara baltica, Cladophora spp., Coccotylus truncatus, Furcellaria lumbricalis, Polysiphonia fucoides, Stuckenia pectinata and Zanichellia palustris, collected in designated areas of the southern Baltic Sea in period 2008-2015. The calculated concentration ratios (CR), which attained very high values: 104Lkg-1 for lead, 103Lkg-1 for nickel and mercury and even 105Lkg-1 for cadmium formed the basis for the determination of EQSMP values. The EQSMP values were: 26mgkg-1d.w. for Pb, 33mgkg-1d.w. for Cd, 32mgkg-1d.w. for Ni and 0.4mgkg-1d.w. for Hg. The application of macrophytobenthic plants as bioindicators in marine environment status assessment of certain areas of the Baltic Sea is also described in the paper.

Keywords: Baltic Sea; Environment status assessment; Heavy metals; Macrophytobenthic plants.

MeSH terms

  • Atlantic Ocean
  • Cadmium / analysis
  • Chlorophyta / chemistry*
  • Environmental Monitoring*
  • Environmental Pollution*
  • Mercury / analysis
  • Metals, Heavy / analysis*
  • Rhodophyta / chemistry*

Substances

  • Metals, Heavy
  • Cadmium
  • Mercury