Copat Chiara, Maggiore Riccardo, Arena Giovanni, Lanzafame Stanislao, Fallico Roberto, Sciacca Salvatore, Ferrante Margherita
Department of Hygiene and Public Health GF Ingrassia, University of Catania, Via Santa Sofia 87, 95123 Catania, Italy.
J Environ Monit. 2012 Jan;14(1):187-92. doi: 10.1039/c1em10575b. Epub 2011 Nov 21.
The use of biological species in the monitoring of marine environmental quality allows the evaluation of biologically available levels of contaminants in the ecosystem and the effects of contaminants on living organisms. The seagrass Posidonia oceanica is a useful bioindicator because through the lepidochronology technique it is possible to obtain a historical contamination trend of a given area. This study aims to assess the temporal trend contamination by heavy metal investigations on dead sheaths of 100 samples of P. oceanica collected in the Protected Marine Area of "Plemmirio" (Sicily) and in the Siracusa bay. Important results were obtained because data show a significant negative temporal trend for the metals analysed especially for As, Co, Cr, Hg, Pb, Se, U and V that in the past had higher concentrations, with a stronger contamination in the Plemmirio area, the site much more exposed to the pollution of the nearby petrochemical complex. This study confirms the relevance of the use of P. oceanica as a biological indicator of metal contamination in coastal ecosystems. Thus the usefulness of P. oceanica as a tracer of spatial metal contamination and as a good tool for water quality evaluation is reinforced.
利用生物物种监测海洋环境质量，能够评估生态系统中污染物的生物可利用水平以及污染物对生物有机体的影响。海草波喜荡草是一种有用的生物指示物，因为通过鳞片年代学技术，可以得出特定区域的历史污染趋势。本研究旨在通过对在“普莱米里奥”（西西里岛）海洋保护区和锡拉库萨湾采集的100个波喜荡草样本的枯死叶鞘进行重金属调查，来评估污染的时间趋势。研究取得了重要成果，因为数据显示，所分析的金属呈现出显著的负时间趋势，尤其是砷、钴、铬、汞、铅、硒、铀和钒，这些金属在过去浓度更高，普莱米里奥地区的污染更严重，该地区受附近石化综合体污染的影响更大。本研究证实了将波喜荡草用作沿海生态系统金属污染生物指示物的重要性。因此，波喜荡草作为空间金属污染示踪剂以及水质评估良好工具的实用性得到了加强。
