The effect of body size on metal accumulations in the bivalve Laternula elliptica

Abstract

Variations of metal concentrations with body size were investigated in kidney, digestive gland and gill of the Antarctic clam, Laternula elliptica, collected from a near-shore habitat at King George Island. Positive relationships for metal concentrations with body size were common among the three organs for most of the metals, while an inverse relationship was found only in the digestive gland for Cu, Zn and Mn. In the gill, concentrations of eight out of the ten metals increased linearly with body size, whilst in the kidney concentrations of Cd, Zn, Pb, Co and Ni were best fitted by quadratic regression curves, viz. increasing continuously until reaching a peak at around an 80 mm shell length. This may reflect specific regulatory activities for the extremely high accumulation of these metals in the kidney, particularly Cd (28–354 μg g⁻¹ tissue dry weight). The overall prevalence of positive relationships indicate net accumulation of these metals throughout life, which may be at least in part associated with the slow growth and long life span of this cold-water bivalve species. The study demonstrates distinct body size-metal concentration relationships in the three organs of L. elliptica, and suggests they may be useful as biomonitors for assessing changes in metal concentrations in Antarctic waters.