title: Trace element fingerprinting of cockle (Cerastoderma edule) shells can reveal harvesting location in adjacent areas.
abstract: Determining seafood geographic origin is critical for controlling its quality and safeguarding the interest of consumers. Here, we use trace element fingerprinting (TEF) of bivalve shells to discriminate the geographic origin of specimens. Barium (Ba), manganese (Mn), magnesium (Mg), strontium (Sr) and lead (Pb) were quantified in cockle shells (Cerastoderma edule) captured with two fishing methods (by hand and by hand-raking) and from five adjacent fishing locations within an estuarine system (Ria de Aveiro, Portugal). Results suggest no differences in TEF of cockle shells captured by hand or by hand-raking, thus confirming that metal rakes do not act as a potential source of metal contamination that could somehow bias TEF results. In contrast, significant differences were recorded among locations for all trace elements analysed. A Canonical Analysis of Principal Coordinates (CAP) revealed that 92% of the samples could be successfully classified according to their fishing location using TEF. We show that TEF can be an accurate, fast and reliable method to determine the geographic origin of bivalves, even among locations separated less than 1 km apart within the same estuarine system. Nonetheless, follow up studies are needed to determine if TEF can reliably discriminate between bivalves originating from different ecosystems.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biologia &CESAM, Universidade de Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ricardo
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biologia &CESAM, Universidade de Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: Luciana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Génio
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biologia &CESAM, Universidade de Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Costa Leal
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biologia &CESAM, Universidade de Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Albuquerque
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biologia &CESAM, Universidade de Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: Henrique
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Queiroga
authors.affiliation: MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rosa
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biologia &CESAM, Universidade de Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Calado
mesh_terms: D060105:Animal Shells / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D049873:Cardiidae / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D014131:Trace Elements / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D014131:Trace Elements