Accumulation pattern of heavy metals in marine organisms collected from a coal burning power plant area of Malacca Strait

Abstract

Nowadays, the marine environment is becoming vulnerable because of anthropogenic pollutants such as heavy metals carried by small particles of fly ash generated by coal burning power plants. Toxic heavy metals such as Cd, Cu, Zn, Pb, and Cr were estimated in three types of marine organisms, i.e., Arius maculatus, Penaeus merguiensis, and Anadara granosa, collected from a coal burning power plant area of Malaysia. An independent-sample t-test was conducted to compare the metal concentration in analysed species where significant differences were observed between A. maculatus, P. merguiensis, and A. granosa in the case of Cd, Cu, and Cr concentrations. Moreover, there were statistically significant difference between A. maculatus and A. granosa, as well as between P. merguiensis and A. granosa, in the case of Zn concentration. Similarly, A. maculatus and P. merguiensis, and A. maculatus and P. merguiensis demonstrated significant differences in the case of Pb concentration. Nevertheless, most of the species examined during this study exhibited concentrations that were lower than the permitted guideline. The hierarchical cluster analysis revealed two groups of analysed species where the first group included fish (A. maculatus) and shrimp (P. merguiensis), whilst the second group consisted of cockles (A. granosa). The calculated values of biota-sediment accumulation factor were 0.79, 0.22, 0.59, 0.07, and 0.06 for A. maculatus; 0.62, 2.31, 0.64, 0.05, and 0,04 for P. merguiensis; 5.10, 0.66, 0.79, 0.05, and 0.10 for P. merguiensis in the case of Cd, Cu, Zn, Pb, and Cr, respectively. The patterns of biota sediment accumulation factor (BSAF) were Cd > Zn > Cu > Pb > Cr for A. maculatus, Cu > Zn > Cd > Pb > Cr for P. merguiensis, and Cd > Zn > Cu > Cr > Pb for A. granosa. However, the BSAFs revealed a higher accumulation ability of heavy metals in A. granosa. Therefore, this species can be used as a bio-indicator of marine pollution.