title: Temporal distribution of heavy metal concentrations in oysters Crassostrea rhizophorae from the central Venezuelan coast.
abstract: The oyster Crassostrea rhizophorae is a bivalve abundant in Venezuelan estuaries and consumed by local populations. No known values have been reported on trace metals in oysters from the central Venezuelan coast. We report the concentrations of Al, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sr, V and Zn in the soft parts of C. rhizophorae, which were collected bimonthly between March 2008 and March 2009, at two sampling areas from the Central Venezuelan Coast: Buche estuary and Mochima estuary. Our results show that for each metal there is a similar temporal variation pattern. The concentrations of the heavy metals reported in this work are useful as reliable baselines and can be used for comparison in future environment studies. Concentrations in C. rhizophorae from the Buche estuary can be interpreted to be high on a global scale for Cd, Cu, Ni and Mn, indicating atypically raised bioavailabilities.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Oceanología y Estudios Antárticos, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC), Apartado 20632, Caracas 1020A, Venezuela. jalfonso@ivic.gob.ve
authors.forename: Juan A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Alfonso
authors.forename: Helga
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Handt
authors.forename: Abrahan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mora
authors.forename: Yaneth
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Vásquez
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Azocar
authors.forename: Eunice
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Marcano
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D049896:Crassostrea / Q000378:metabolism*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000378:metabolism*; D014687:Venezuela; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000378:metabolism*; D014877:Water Pollution, Chemical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D019216:Metals, Heavy; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Bioindicators; Bivalves; Heavy metals; Oysters