Faezeh Hedayati Rad, Arezoo Solimani, Ali Dadolahi Sohrab, Mohammad Hasan Gerami
Zinc, copper and nickel concentrations in muscle and bone flatfish species Cynoglossus arel were assessed and compared to concentrations of this metal in sediments in the Persian Gulf. Fish were caught by bottom trawl net and a Van veen grab were employed to sample from sediments in 2014. The new Contamination Severity Index (CSI) was employed to assess contamination in sediments. The bioaccumulation (BF) factors were calculated to assess accumulation ration of heavy metals. Heavy metal concentrations in the muscles, bone and sediments are presented in Table 1. The highest heavy metals contents were found in sediments, followed by bone and muscle. Heavy metals in muscle, bone and sediment sequence was as follows respectively: Zn>Cu>Ni, Zn>Cu>Ni and Cu>Ni>Zn. Muscle/Sediment (M/S) and Bone/Sediment (B/S) bioaccumulation analysis showed that heavy metals did not accumulated in these tissues, individually. However, BF values of Muscle+Bone/ Sediment (MB/S) showed that Zn, Cu and Ni accumulated in body of C. arel. CSI calculated as 2.683 that reflected Moderate to high severity of contamination. In conclusion, C. arel could be used successfully as biomonitors of Zn, Cu and Ni sediment content in the Persian Gulf because of their ability to accumulate these metals.
