Assessment of Different Soft Tissues of the Green-lipped Mussel Perna viridis (Linnaeus) as Biomonitoring Agents of Pb: Field and Laboratory Studies

An assessment of the different soft tissues (STs) of Pernaviridis as biomonitoring agents of Pb has not been specifically reported in the literature. Based on the results of our laboratory studies,different rates of accumulation and depuration of Pb in the different STs werefound and this might be due to different mechanisms of metal binding andregulation. At the end of depuration, Pb levels in the different STs of P. viridis were 3–100 times higher than those before Pb exposure. The high ratio of maximum to minimum Pb levels (160) and the similar patterns (althoughdifferent rates) of accumulation and depuration in the different STs forPb indicated that P. viridis is a good biomonitoring organism for Pband our conclusion is also supported by analysis of field samples collected fromcontaminated and uncontaminated sites. The distribution of Pb in the STssuggests that gills and byssus are better for the biomonitoring of Pb than the total ST.