TY - JOUR
T1 - Metal pollution as a potential threat to shell strength and survival in marine bivalves
AU - Stewart, Bryce Donald
AU - Boig, Charlotte
AU - Jenkins, Stuart
AU - Sinfield, Catherine
AU - Kennington, Kevin
AU - Lart, William
AU - Brand, Andrew
AU - Kroger, Roland
PY - 2020/10/19
Y1 - 2020/10/19
N2 - Marine bivalve molluscs, such as scallops, mussels and oysters, are crucial components of coastal ecosystems, providing a range of ecosystem services, including a quarter of the world’s seafood. Unfortunately, due to human activity, coastal marine areas often suffer from metal contamination. We establish that increased levels of metal pollution (zinc, copper and lead) in sediments near the Isle of Man, resulting from historical mining, strongly correlate with significant weakening of shell strength in king scallops, Pecten maximus. This weakness increases mortality during fishing and leaves individuals more exposed to predation. Comparative structural analysis revealed that shells from the contaminated area were thinner and exhibited a pronounced mineralisation disruption parallel to the shell surface within the foliated region of both the top and bottom valves. Our data suggest that these disruptions caused reduced fracture strength and hence increased mortality, even at subcritical contamination levels with respect to current international standards. This hitherto unreported effect is important since such non-apical responses rarely feed into environmental quality assessments, with significant implications for population survival. Hence, our findings highlight the impact of metal pollution on shell mineralisation in bivalves, and urge a reappraisal of currently accepted critical contamination levels.
AB - Marine bivalve molluscs, such as scallops, mussels and oysters, are crucial components of coastal ecosystems, providing a range of ecosystem services, including a quarter of the world’s seafood. Unfortunately, due to human activity, coastal marine areas often suffer from metal contamination. We establish that increased levels of metal pollution (zinc, copper and lead) in sediments near the Isle of Man, resulting from historical mining, strongly correlate with significant weakening of shell strength in king scallops, Pecten maximus. This weakness increases mortality during fishing and leaves individuals more exposed to predation. Comparative structural analysis revealed that shells from the contaminated area were thinner and exhibited a pronounced mineralisation disruption parallel to the shell surface within the foliated region of both the top and bottom valves. Our data suggest that these disruptions caused reduced fracture strength and hence increased mortality, even at subcritical contamination levels with respect to current international standards. This hitherto unreported effect is important since such non-apical responses rarely feed into environmental quality assessments, with significant implications for population survival. Hence, our findings highlight the impact of metal pollution on shell mineralisation in bivalves, and urge a reappraisal of currently accepted critical contamination levels.
KW - Fisheries
KW - scallops
KW - Scallop dredging
KW - Pollution
KW - Heavy metals
KW - Mining
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143019
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143019
M3 - Article
SN - 0048-9697
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
ER -