title: Distribution of cadmium, mercury, and lead in different body parts of Baltic herring (Clupea harengus) and perch (Perca fluviatilis): implications for environmental status assessments.
abstract: For heavy metals, quality standards indicating good environmental status are designed to evaluate concentrations in the whole fish body, whereas monitoring of metals is often conducted using muscle or liver tissue. As most metals accumulate at different rates in different parts of fish, data should be adjusted to reflect whole fish body concentrations; however, this requires knowledge on distribution of metal concentrations within fish. Here, concentrations of cadmium, mercury, and lead were analyzed in the liver, muscle and whole fish of herring and perch to create conversion factors for transformation of heavy metal concentrations between these tissues. Species-specific accumulation of metals between muscle, liver, and whole fish were observed. Relationships between different tissues were used to recalculate data from monitoring programs in the Baltic Sea region. Based on whole fish concentrations, environmental status for cadmium and mercury in herring improved compared to assessments based on muscle or liver concentrations alone.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Research and Monitoring, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, SE-114 18 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Elin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Boalt
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Research and Monitoring, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, SE-114 18 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Aroha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Research and Monitoring, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, SE-114 18 Stockholm, Sweden. Electronic address: Henrik.Dahlgren@nrm.se.
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dahlgren
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002104:Cadmium / Q000378:metabolism; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005399:Fishes / Q000378:metabolism*; D007854:Lead / Q000378:metabolism; D008628:Mercury / Q000378:metabolism; D008670:Metals / Q000378:metabolism*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
chemical_list: D008670:Metals; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D002104:Cadmium; D007854:Lead; D008628:Mercury
keywords: Baltic Sea; Ecotoxicology; Environmental quality standards; Marine strategy framework directive