Using snails as bioindicators of heavy metal exposure at a Department of Defense facility
- Indiana Univ., Bloomington, IN (United States). School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Mollusks are useful bioindicators of aquatic contamination. They are easy to identify and handle, are widely distributed, and are known to accumulate heavy metals. The authors evaluated the accumulation of heavy metals in snails at points both upstream and downstream from potential contaminant sources, indigenous snails (Elimia livescens) were collected from an upstream site and placed in plastic mesh cages in 6 sites in 3 watersheds on base, upstream and downstream of 3 potential contamination sources. At each site there were 3 cages containing 12 snails each. In a parallel laboratory study snails were placed in 6 jars in 3 different treatments. One treatment contained stream water taken from the same sites where the snails were collected. The other two treatments had the same stream water spiked with 2 different concentrations of metals. The higher concentration of metals reflected the level of each metal detected in surface water downstream of one of the potentially contaminated sites. The lower metal concentration jars were spiked with metals at 1/2 the concentrations used in the higher level treatment. The animals were left in the cages and the jars for 12 weeks. After being removed from the cages and jars the snails were freeze-dried, weighed whole, then dissected into shelf and organic tissue. Tissue and shell were separately analyzed for metal content. Water and sediment samples were collected in the beginning and end of the field study and also analyzed for heavy metals. The heavy metal analysis was done on an atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Fe, Mn, Pb and Ni have been analyzed. Initial results show that there are differences in the concentrations of the metals in the three watersheds. Also, there is a higher concentration of Fe and Mn in tissue compared to shell, and higher concentration of Pb in shell compared to tissue.
- OSTI ID:
- 367441
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9511137--; ISBN 1-880611-03-1
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Fluoride accumulation in the land snail Oreohelix subrudis from western Montana
Distribution of metals and accumulation of lead by different tissues in the freshwater snail Lymnaea stagnalis (L.)