Ciências Marinhas: Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento

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Mercury Accumulation in Food Chain of Fish, Crab and Sea Bird from Arvand River

Yaghoob Parsa, Seyed Seyed Mohammad Bagher Nabavi, Seyedeh Narges Nabavi and Mehdi Hosseini

In this study, concentration of mercury (Hg) was determined in the trophic levels of fish, blue crab and one sea birds species from Arvand river, located in the Khuzestan province in the lowlands of southwestern Iran at the head of the Persian Gulf. The order of mercury concentrations in tissues of the fish species was as follows: liver>gill>muscle,in tissues of the crab was as follows: hepatopancreas>gill>muscle and in tissues of the birds species was as follows:feather>liver>kidney. Therefore, Liver in fish, hepatopancreas in crab and feather in birds exhibited higher mercury concentration than the other tissues. There was a positive correlation between mercury concentrations in fish, craband birds species with size of its food items. W e expected to see higher mercury levels in tissues of female species because they are larger and can eat larger food items. The results of this study show that highest mean mercury levels were found in the birds (A. crecca), followed by crab (P. pelagicus), pelagic fish (S.strongylura) and benthic fish (E. diacanthus). Mean value of mercury in fish species, S. strongylura were(0.54 μg g-1 dry weight), E. diacanthus (0.27 μg g-1 dry weight), crab P. pelagicus (0.74 μg g-1 dry weight)and bird species A. crecca was (3.4 μg g-1 dry weight).