Accumulation of metals in the soft tissues, byssus and shell of the mytilid mussel Perna viridis (Bivalvia: Mytilidae) from polluted and uncontaminated locations in Hong Kong coastal waters

摘要

The subtropical mytilid mussel Perna viridis is an ideal candidate for pollution monitoring both in Hong Kong and throughout the Indo-Pacific (Nicholson, 1999a,b). The ability of mussels to accumulate metals to considerably higher concentrations than present in seawater is well known and several mechanisms of countering toxicity have been established including avoidance of ambient conditions through shell closure, sequestration in an unavailable form in the lysosomes (George, 1980; Nicholson, 1999a,b), and re-distribution of metals into inert compartments including the shell (Szefer and Szefer, 1985; Szefer et al., 2002) and byssus (Coombs and Keller, 1981; Cheung and Wong, 1992). Sewage and municipal wastewater discharges in Hong Kong are considerably different between the highly urbanised shores situated along Victoria Harbour and outlying locations distant from the urban population (Nicholson, 1999b). In this investigation, we examined the metal concentrations bioaccumulated in the soft tissues, byssus and shell of P. viridis from a polluted and a relatively uncontaminated location and discuss the metal-specific sequestration in inert biological compartments.