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Heavy metals in aquatic organisms of different trophic levels and their potential human health risk in Bohai Bay, China

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Abstract

Fourteen aquatic organism samples were collected from Bohai Bay, and concentrations of five heavy metals were measured to evaluate the pollution levels in aquatic organisms and the potential risk to human health. The concentrations of Zn and Cu were much higher than those of Cd, Cr, and Pb in all the organisms. In general, the heavy metal concentration levels were in the order phytoplankton < zooplankton < fish < shrimp < shellfish. Heavy metal concentrations in higher trophic-level aquatic organisms in Bohai Bay were compared to those in the organisms from other worldwide coastal waters. The concentration levels of most heavy metals were higher than the 75th percentile, except that Pb concentration was between the 25th and 50th percentiles. The calculated bioconcentration factors (BCF) of Cr, Cu, and Pb for phytoplankton were less than 100, indicating no accumulation in primary producers. The bioaccumulation factor (BAF) of Pb for zooplankton was the highest, indicating significant Pb accumulation in zooplankton. For higher trophic-level aquatic organisms, the order of BAF values was fish < shrimp < shellfish for most metals except for Pb. The human health risk assessment suggests that strict abatement measures of heavy metals must be taken to decrease the health risk caused by consuming aquatic products.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by The National Natural Science Fund (41273068), Tian** Research Program of Applied Science and Advanced Technology (11JCZDJC24100), and the EU-funded Environmental Sustainability Program (Contract No. DCI-ASIE/2013/323-550, EuropeAid/133-582/L/ACT/CN).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tian** Academy of Environmental Sciences, Tian**, 300191, China

    Yan Zhang, Xueqiang Lu, Meinan **n & Shiwei Geng

  2. Tian** Huanke Testing Technology Company Limited, Tian**, 300191, China

    Naili Wang, **g Jia & Qinghui Meng

Authors
  1. Yan Zhang
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  2. Xueqiang Lu
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  7. Qinghui Meng
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Correspondence to Xueqiang Lu.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Supplementary information (DOCX 30 kb) Additional file 1 was received; however, no citation was provided in the manuscript. Please provide the location of where to insert the citation in the main body of the text. Otherwise, kindly advise us on how to proceed. Please note that additional files should be cited in ascending numerical order in the main body of the text.The additional file is the detailed data used in figure 4. We have declared this in the caption of figure 4.

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Zhang, Y., Lu, X., Wang, N. et al. Heavy metals in aquatic organisms of different trophic levels and their potential human health risk in Bohai Bay, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 17801–17810 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6948-y

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