title: Arsenic bioaccumulation in a marine juvenile fish Terapon jarbua.
abstract: Arsenic (As) is a ubiquitous toxic metalloid that is causing widespread public concern. Recent measurements have indicated that some marine fish in China might be seriously contaminated with As. Yet the biokinetics and bioaccumulation pathway of As in fish remain little understood. In this study, we employed a radiotracer technique to quantify the dissolved uptake, dietary assimilation and subsequent efflux of As(V) in a marine predatory fish, Terapon jarbua. The dissolved uptake of As showed a linear pattern over a range of dissolved concentrations from 0.5 to 50 μg L(-1), with a corresponding uptake rate constant of 0.0015 L g(-1)d(-1). The assimilation efficiencies (AEs) of dietary As were only 3.1-7.4% for fish fed with copepods, clams, prey fish, or artificial diets, and were much lower than the As that entered the trophically available metal fraction in the prey. The dietary AEs were independent of the As(V) concentrations in the artificial diets. The efflux rate constant of As in fish following the dietary exposure was 0.03 d(-1). Modeling calculations showed that dietary uptake could be the primary route for As bioaccumulation in fish, and the corresponding contributions of waterborne and dietary uptakes were related to the bioconcentration factor (BCF) of the prey and the ingestion rate of fish. This study demonstrates that As(V) has a low bioavailability to T. jarbua.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oceanography in Tropics, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Liangmin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Wen-Xiong
authors.initials: WX
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001151:Arsenic / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D001682:Biological Availability; D004032:Diet; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D020387:Food Chain; D005506:Food Contamination; D008954:Models, Biological; D010473:Perciformes / Q000378:metabolism*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D001151:Arsenic