Maria Antónia Salgado

Pollicipes pollicipes as a Biomonitor of PAHs Contamination in Seawaters of the Northwest Coast of Portugal

ABSTRACT Simple, fast, and economic solid phase microextration–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (SPME–GC–MS) methods were validated for the determination of 8 United States Environmental Protection Agency priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs: naphthalene, acenaphthylene, acenaphthene, fluorene, phenanthrene, anthracene, fluoranthene and pyrene) in coastal seawaters and soft tissues of goose barnacles Pollicipes pollicipes. Under the optimized conditions, the limits of detection ranged from 0.012 to 1.069 ng L−1 and 0.002 to 0.061 µg kg−1 (dry weight basis) for seawaters and soft tissues, respectively. Precision varied between 3.9% and 20.0% for seawaters and between 8.4% and 19.1% for soft tissues, which are acceptable repeatabilities for environmental analyses. Finally, the accuracy of the optimized conditions also showed suitable recoveries, varying between 81.5% and 105.5% in spiked seawater samples and between 88.0% and 103.4% in the standard reference material for organics in mussel tissues (NIST SRM 2977). These methods were applied to a monitoring program performed along the northwest coast of Portugal during four seasons in 2011 in order to assess the levels of these compounds present in coastal waters and in the tissues of goose barnacles, one food resource of high commercial value. The results showed that although the concentrations of PAHs in seawaters and P. pollicipes varied significantly along the coast and between seasons (p < 0.05), in general the concentrations in seawater can be classified as “Class II – Good/Natural Background Concentrations” during the four seasons of 2011. As for the concentrations of PAHs in P. pollicipes, they were positively correlated (p < 0.05) with their concentrations in seawater, indicating that P. pollicipes may be an adequate biomonitor species of PAHs availabilities along the coast of Portugal throughout the year.

The spatial and seasonal variation of trace metals in coastal seawater and soft tissue of Chthamalus montagui around the northwest coast of Portugal

Metal concentrations (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn) were determined in seawaters and soft tissues of Chthamalus montagui from the northwest coast of Portugal during the four seasons of 2011. The main objectives of this work were to assess seasonal and spatial variations of metals in order to detect hot spots of contamination, to establish correlations between metals in coastal seawaters and C. montagui and to calculate metal bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) in each season. Metal concentrations in coastal seawaters ranged within Cd: 1.2–35 ng L−1; Cr: 15–87 ng L−1; Mn: 77–1763 ng L−1; Cu: 126–1819 ng L−1; Fe: 430–4048 ng L−1 and Zn: 2889–16867 ng L−1 and in C. montagui ranged for Cd: 0.39–1.98 mg kg−1; Cr: 0.45–3.13 mg kg−1; Cu: 0.93–5.70 mg kg−1; Mn: 2.2–20.4 mg kg−1; Fe: 135–707 mg kg−1 and Zn: 119–782 mg kg−1. Significant spatial and seasonal variations were found between: (i) metal concentrations in seawaters and C. montagui tissues; (ii) the distribution of metal concentrations in C. montagui tissues were Fe > Zn > Mn > Cu > Cr > Cd and (iii) C. montagui showed higher bioaccumulation factors for Fe and Cd than for Cu, Mn and Zn in all seasons. Regarding the metal concentrations accumulated in C. montagui tissues during each season of 2011, the ecological quality classifications of the NW coast of Portugal varied from “Class I–Unpolluted” to “Class III–Remarkably Polluted”.

Barnacle species as biomonitors of metal contamination in the northwest coast of Portugal: Ecological quality classification approach

ABSTRACT This work discusses the simultaneous use of barnacles C. montagui and P. pollicipes as biomonitors of metal (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, and Zn) contamination in the northwest (NW) coast of Portugal during the four seasons of 2011. The metal concentrations in soft tissues of both barnacles species, metal bioaccumulation factors (BAFs), and ecological quality classifications of coastal waters are presented. The most and the least metal-contaminated locations were, respectively, location 5 (“Cabo do Mundo”) and location 10 (“Moledo”). The most and the least metal-contaminated seasons of 2011 were, respectively, autumn and winter. Temporal comparisons with previous works of 2009–2011 showed that C. montagui bioaccumulated Cd, Cr, and Fe at higher rates and P. pollicipes accumulated more Zn besides Cd and Fe. In addition, global mean BAFs showed that the best season to collect both barnacle species for metal contamination assessment/monitoring purposes in future works would be spring and that P. pollicipes would be the best barnacle species to monitor metals. In terms of ecological quality classification, all NW coast of Portugal should be classified as “Class III – Remarkably Polluted” due the high concentrations of Zn found in barnacles species during the four seasons of 2011. This work suggested that both barnacle species are suitable species to be included in the Portuguese Environmental Specimen Banks under European Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56/EC.