Molluskan tissues as an accumulation sites for heavy metals from Lybian coast in North-East Lybia

Abstract

A number of living marine gastropods (Phorcus turbinata and Patella caerulea) which are commonly inhabited the rocky beach of meso-infra littoral zones in the entire Circum-Mediterranean coast are collected from nine coastal localities (Benghazi "Ashbilia and Sabri)", Tocra, Tolmeita, Al Haniyah, Al Hamamah, Susa, Hawa Eftaih and Ras Al Hilal) in April, 2018. The inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICPMS) was performed on the soft body for measuring the environment-sensitive elements such as Fe, Sn, Sb, Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni, As, Hg and Se. All analyzed metals are mainly of anthropogenic origin (excluding Fe). The statistical treatment indicates that most heavy metals are mutually correlated, but there is an absence of strong correlations among some metals, which suggests that these metals are possibly of different sources. The concentrations of all metals are below the recommended guideline in seafood, except for As in Phorcus turbinata and Pb in Patella caerulea. Moreover, the Phorcus turbinata is a good accumulator for Fe, Ni, As and Hg, whereas Patella caerulea is a collector for Cu, Zn and Pb. Additionally, the contamination indices suggest that Susa (distillation station) and Sabri are the most polluted areas.