Monitoring Heavy Metal Pollution in San Antonio Bay, Rio Negro, Argentina

摘要

Heavy metals naturally exist in low concentrations in water, as well as in sediments and in biota. Concerns abound when these elements are derived from anthropogenic sources because they become toxic when they reach threshold levels in chemical forms,and because they persist in the environment for a long time. Marine sediments form a reservoir for heavy metals because they are able to complex to other compounds due to their reactive properties. The accumulation of these pollutants in organisms is anindicator of their bioavailability in the environment, mainly for non-essential metals. Although the bioaccu-mulation factors between biota and sediments do not imply an accumulation-specific mechanism, they are indicative of the degree of exposure of the organisms that inhabit polluted sediments (Foster and Wright, 1988).