Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Sep;30(45):101565-101584.
doi: 10.1007/s11356-023-29112-5. Epub 2023 Aug 31.

Heavy metals concentration in zooplankton (copepods) in the western Bay of Bengal

Parthasarathi Singaram  1   2 , Jyothibabu Retnamma  3 , Rashid Cheruparambil  1   2 , Arunpandi Nagarathinam  1 , Jagadeesan Loganathan  1   4 , Jebarani Rajathy Thangaraj  1 , Santhikrishnan Sobha Radhakrishnan  1
Affiliations

Heavy metals concentration in zooplankton (copepods) in the western Bay of Bengal

Parthasarathi Singaram et al. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2023 Sep.

Abstract

Along the coastline, urbanisation and industrialization pose significant challenges to marine habitats and biodiversity. Most wastewater that reaches the marine environment contains toxic metals, which, as they are non-biodegradable, accumulate in the biota and enter the marine food chain. This study presents the concentration of nine heavy metals (Fe, Zn, Cu, Co, Cr, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Cd) in zooplankton (copepods) during the Spring Intermonsoon/Pre-Monsoon (April 2019) in the western Bay of Bengal (BoB). Higher Fe concentrations were found in copepods both nearshore (42,352 µg/g) and offshore (9835 µg/g). However, the relative amounts of heavy metals in copepods from 16 locations (eight nearshore and eight offshore) varied in the order of Fe > Zn > Cu > Co > Cr > Mn > Ni > Pb > Cd. The copepods in the nearshore locations had higher concentrations of heavy metals than those offshore. Compared to earlier data on heavy metals, particularly those that are physiologically non-essential and toxic, the current study demonstrates higher amounts of these metals in copepods in the inshore BoB [Ni (avg. 58.7 ± 5.5 µg/g), Pb (avg. 25.6 ± 4.7 µg/g), and Cd (avg. 16.4 ± 0.9 µg/g)]. Considering the strong East India Coastal Currents in the western BoB, trace metal-concentrated copepods could be transported too far along the Indian coastline from the current study area.

Keywords: Bay of Bengal; Coastal currents; Copepods; Harmful metals; Heavy metals; Zooplankton.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Abadi DR, Dobaradaran S, Nabipour I, Lamani X, Ravanipour M, Tahmasebi R, Nazmara S (2014) Comparative investigation of Heavy Metal, Trace, and macro element contents in commercially valuable fish species harvested off from the Persian Gulf. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22:6670–6678. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3852-1 - DOI
    1. Achary S, Panigrahi S, Panigrahy RC, Prabhu RK, Sekar JK, Satpathy KK (2020) Concentration factor of metals in zooplankton and their seasonality in Kalpakkam coast, southwest Bay of Bengal. Environ Chem Ecotoxicol 2:12–23
    1. Adekola FA, Eletta OAA (2007) A study of heavy metal pollution of Asa River, Ilorin. Nigeria; trace metal monitoring and geochemistry. Environ Monit Assess 125(1):157–163
    1. Ahluwalia SS, Goyal D (2007) Microbial and plant derived biomass for removal of heavy metals from wastewater. Bioresour Technol 98(98):2243
    1. Ali H, Khan E, Ilahi I (2019) Environmental chemistry and ecotoxicology of hazardous heavy metals: Environmental persistence, toxicity, and bioaccumulation. J Chem. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/6730305 - DOI

LinkOut - more resources