Uptake of nickel and zinc by the zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha.
Short-term experiments with nickel and zinc radioisotopesshowed that the zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha takes up both"dissolved" (<0. 45 microm) and particulate fractions of thesemetals in water. Uptake of particulate nickel was significant (despite arelatively low affinity of nickel for particulate matter), though lessimportant than uptake of dissolved nickel. The relative importance ofdissolved and particulate zinc varied from an almost exclusive uptake ofdissolved zinc to uptake of particulate zinc only. This variability mayreflect a dependence on the composition of the suspended particulatematerial, in line with the observation that zinc uptake and bioaccumulationwere higher in high-turbidity water than in low-turbidity water. Metalexcretion differed between the two metals; more than half of the accumulatedzinc was excreted in twenty four hours, while no nickel excretion wasevident. The mussels removed a larger proportion of total watercolumn zincthan of total watercolumn nickel. Of the metal removed from the watercolumn,a majority of the zinc was biodeposited (as feces/pseudofeces) while most ofthe nickel was bioaccumulated. These results indicate that the introductionof the zebra mussel will result in element-specific decreases of watercolumnmetal levels, increases in metal bioaccumulation and increases in metalbiodeposition. Results also indicate that D. polymorpha tissue metallevels obtained in biomonitoring programs will generally reflect bothdissolved and particulate metal levels.
Klerks
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PL
Department of Biology, University of Southwestern Louisiana, P.O. Box 42451, Lafayette, Louisiana 70504, USA.
Fraleigh
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PC
D000818:Animals; D049872:Bivalvia / Q000378:metabolism*; D009532:Nickel / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D015032:Zinc / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*
D009532:Nickel; D015032:Zinc