Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
7480061 | Journal of Environmental Management | 2016 | 9 Pages |
Abstract
A comprehensive study was carried out to assess metal contamination in five cities spanning from temperate to tropical environment along the coastal line of China with different hydrographical conditions. At each of the five cities, Artificial Mussels (AM) were deployed together with a native species of mussel at a control site and a polluted site. High levels of Cr, Cu and Hg were found in Qingdao, high level of Cd, Hg and Pb was found in Shanghai, and high level of Zn was found in Dalian. Furthermore, level of Cu contamination in all the five cities was consistently much higher than those reported in similar studies in other countries (e.g., Australia, Portugal, Scotland, Iceland, Korea, South Africa and Bangladesh). Levels of individual metal species in the AM showed a highly significant correlation with that in the native mussels (except for Zn in Mytilus edulis and Cd in Perna viridis), while no significant difference can be found between the regression relationships of metal in the AM and each of the two native mussel species. The results demonstrated that AM can provide a reliable time-integrated estimate of metal concentration in contrasting environments over large biogeographic areas and different hydrographic conditions, and overcome the shortcomings of monitoring metals in water, sediment and the use of biomonitors.
Keywords
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Energy
Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
Authors
Natalie Degger, Jill M.Y. Chiu, Beverly H.K. Po, Anna C.K. Tse, Gene J. Zheng, Dong-Mei Zhao, Di Xu, Yu-Shan Cheng, Xin-Hong Wang, Wen-Hua Liu, T.C. Lau, Rudolf S.S. Wu,