Lead behavior in abalone shell

Journal Article · Mon Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1994 · Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/0016-7037(94)90045-0· OSTI ID:6790598

Hirao, Yoshimitsu; Matsumoto, Akikazu; Kimura, Kan ^[1]; Yamakawa, Hiroshi; Maeda, Masaru ^[2]

---

1. Aoyama Gakuin Univ., Tokyo (Japan)
2. Tokyo Univ. of Fisheries (Japan)

In order to gain information about the behavior of heavy metals in biological assimilation processes in a marine food chain and to investigate the possibility that lead pollution in a marine environment can be estimated by measurement of a small number of key materials from such a food chain, muscle and shell were analyzed from abalone (Haliotis) from a shallow water locality in a Japanese coastal region. Lead concentrations in muscle were about 26 ppb for abalone approximately 3 years old and decreased systematically with increasing age of animals sampled, to about 3.3 ppb for a specimen approximately 8 years old. Lead concentrations in shell material gradually decreased also, from 150 ppb to 82 ppb in the oldest specimen. The decrease of concentration in tissues with increasing age indicates that a mechanism for exclusion of lead during tissue growth becomes more efficient with age. Along the food chain in which abalone is the final stage, lead was enriched at the first stage, from seawater to algae, by a factor of 100. Lead was diminished at all subsequent stages of the chain. Tissue of artificially cultured abalone had four times higher lead values compared to abalone grown in natural conditions, and this appears to reflect the fact that lead concentration was three times higher in seawater in the cultured environment.

• OSTI ID: 6790598
• Journal Information: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta; (United States), Journal Name: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta; (United States) Vol. 58:15; ISSN GCACAK; ISSN 0016-7037
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540320* -- Environment
Aquatic-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
ANIMALS
AQUATIC ORGANISMS
BIOLOGICAL ACCUMULATION
ELEMENTS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INVERTEBRATES
LEAD
METALS
MOLLUSCS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION
SEAWATER
WATER
WATER POLLUTION