Age- and Sex-Specific Bioaccumulation of Selected Metals in Freshwater Mussel (Unio elangatulus eucirrus Bourguignat, 1860) Populating from Keban Dam Lake (Elazig, Turkey).

In aquatic life, environmental chemicals are accumulated by mussels due to their sentinel nature and filter-feeding characteristics. Herein, the present study focused on assessing the concentrations of Cu, Zn, Mg, Mn, Fe, Cd, Pb, Ca, K, and Na levels in freshwater mussels (Unio elangatulus eucirrus) depending on sex and age. For all trace metals, some important differences of bioaccumulations were determined depending on ages and sex. In details, the results indicated that an important age-related accumulation of Mg, Cd, Ca, and K was in females and all trace elements, except Cu, Mg, and K levels in males (p < 0.05). No statistical differences were determined in mean concentrations of Cu, Zn, Mg, and Na. There are statistical differences in Mg, Mn, Fe, and Ca levels between females and males in four aged mussels (p < 0.05). Lead levels were under detectable limits. Overall, metal levels and their toxicity in freshwater mussels should be closely monitored for health of the environment, animals, and humans, since mussels and fish species fed on them are consumed highly in the research region and around.

Determination of metal (Cu, Zn, Se, Cr and Cd) levels in tissues of the cyprinid fish, Capoeta trutta (Heckel, 1843) from different regions of Keban Dam Lake (Euphrates-Turkey).

The aim of this study was to evaluate Copper (Cu), Zinc (Zn), Selenium (Se), Chromium (Cr) and Cadmium (Cd) concentrations in liver, muscle, gills and kidney tissues of Capoeta trutta collected from four sites of Keban Dam Lake, Turkey. The highest heavy metal level in all tissues was for Zn, while Cd was the lowest. The lowest heavy metal levels were generally found at Station 4 (Agin) for all tissues (p < 0.05). There were statistically significant differences among stations for Cu, Zn, Cr and Se in gills; for Cu, Zn, Se and Cr in liver and kidney; and Cu, Zn and Cr in muscle (p < 0.05). Cadmium concentrations did not differ between sites for any of the tissues. Turkish Food Codex sets the maximum limits of Zn, Cu and Cd as, 50, 20 and 0.05 mg kg(-1) dry weight, respectively, in the muscle of fish used for human consumption. In our study, the level of Zn was higher than Turkish permissible limits only at Station 3 (Guluskur). Cadmium levels were much higher than permissible limits at three stations [S1 (Pertek), S2 (Kockale) and S3], whereas Cu levels were within permissible limits in all stations.

Some heavy metals accumulation in tissues in Capoeta umbla (Heckel, 1843) from Uzuncayir Dam Lake (Tunceli, Turkey).

Concentrations of metals were determined in the gills, liver, kidney, heart and muscle in Capoeta umbla caught from six stations from the Munzur River system. Metal concentrations in the tissues tended to vary significantly among stations (p < 0.05). Liver (Cu, 10.10 ± 0.23-23.03 ± 9.37 ppm; Zn, 14.67 ± 3.01-21.82 ± 2.39 ppm; Cd, 18.04 ± 4.56-52.69 ± 10.65 ppb and Fe, 28.87 ± 6.78-115.11 ± 34.87 ppm) and kidney (Cu, 1.80 ± 0.25-3.70 ± 0.62 ppm; Zn, 20.81 ± 0.37-29.36 ± 0.70 ppm; Cd, 132.06 ± 5.29-639.51 ± 20.14 ppb and Fe, 24.40 ± 1.98-59.39 ± 1.97 ppm) tissues showed higher metal concentrations than other tissues. It seems that metal contamination in the river is too high for the health of fish and the people who eat them. The geographical locations of catch, season, nature of diet, and the size of fish used for analyses might lead to different metal concentration in the same fish species.