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Heavy Metal Content in Chilean Fish Related to Habitat Use, Tissue Type and River of Origin

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Abstract

In this study, we analyze the concentration of ten metals in two freshwater fish—the benthic catfish Trichomycterus areolatus and the limnetic silverside Basilichthys microlepidotus—in order to detect possible accumulation differences related to fish habitat (benthic or pelagic), tissue type (gill, liver and muscle), and the river of origin (four different rivers) in central Chile. The MANOVA performed with all variables and metals, revealed independent effects of fish, tissue and river. In the case of the fish factor, Cu, Cr, Mo and Zn showed statistically higher concentrations in catfish compared with silverside for all tissues and in all rivers (p < 0.05). In the case of the tissue factor, Al, Cr, Fe and Mn had statistically higher concentrations in liver and gills than in muscle (p  < 0.05). For the river effect, the analysis showed higher concentrations of Cr, Mn and Pb in the Cogoti river and the lower concentrations in the Recoleta river. These results suggest that not all metals have the same pattern of accumulation; however, some metals tend to accumulate more in readily catfish, probably due to their benthic habit, and in liver and gill tissue, probably as a result of accumulation from food sources and respiration.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank T Walter for edition, GS Muñoz for metal analysis, S Scott, R Gauci and C Quezada-Romegialli for help during field work. DV thanks the Chilean Millennium Initiative, ESMOI, Basal Grant PFB 023 and ICM P05-002. CVR thanks Fondecyt 11150213.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Química, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    S. V. Copaja & C. A. Pérez

  2. Departamento de Ciencias Ecológicas, Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad (IEB), Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    C. Vega-Retter & D. Véliz

  3. Nucleo Milenio de Ecología y Manejo Sustentable de Islas Oceánicas (ESMOI), Departamento de Biología Marina, Universidad Católica del Norte, Coquimbo, Chile

    C. Vega-Retter & D. Véliz

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  1. S. V. Copaja
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  3. C. Vega-Retter
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  4. D. Véliz
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to S. V. Copaja.

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Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standard of the Universidad de Chile.

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 3 and 4.

Table 3 Metal concentration (mg kg−1) of the Dolt-4 reference material
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Table 4 Mean (mg g−1) and standard deviation (SD) of each metal detected in the organs of the catfish and the silverside fish in the different rivers
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Copaja, S.V., Pérez, C.A., Vega-Retter, C. et al. Heavy Metal Content in Chilean Fish Related to Habitat Use, Tissue Type and River of Origin. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 99, 695–700 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-017-2200-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-017-2200-9

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