Examination of barnacles’ potential to be used as bioindicators of persistent organic pollutants in coastal ecosystem: A Malaysia case study
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2021
Abstract
Barnacles are ubiquitous in coastal ecosystems of different geographical regions worldwide. This is the first study attempting to assess the suitability of barnacles as bioindicators of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in coastal environments. Barnacles were collected from the coasts around Peninsular Malaysia and analyzed for POPs including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs). Among POPs, PCBs showed the highest concentrations with elevated contributions of CB28 and CB153. As for PBDEs, BDE47 was the most frequently detected congener, while BDE209 was detected in barnacles from two stations in Port Klang and the levels reached up to >70% of total PBDE concentrations. Concentrations of OCPs detected in barnacles were in the order of CHLs > DDTs > HCHs > HCB and 4,4′-DDE and cis- and trans-chlordane were the predominant OCP compounds. A comparison with previous studies in Malaysia showed consistent levels of POPs. Green mussels collected from selected barnacles’ habitats, for the sake of a comparison, showed almost similar profiles but lower concentrations of POPs. The spatial distribution of POPs observed in barnacles and comparison of POP levels and profiles with mussels indicated that barnacles can be useful bioindicators for monitoring POPs contamination in the coastal ecosystems. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd
Keywords
Bivalve, POPs, Bioindicator, Barnacle, Mussel, Malaysia
Divisions
InstituteofBiologicalSciences,ocean
Funders
Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (HiCoE Phase II Fund, grant IOES-2014D),Fundamental Research Grant Scheme FP060-2019A,Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology , Japan (MEXT) to a project on Joint Usage/Research Center, Leading Academia in Marine and Environment Pollution Research (LaMer),International Partnership Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences Grant No. 132744KYSB20170002
Publication Title
Chemosphere
Volume
263
Publisher
Elsevier