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Mussels and Marine Environmental Contaminants
Summary
This book chapter describes the range of pollutants — including microplastics, heavy metals, and organic chemicals — that accumulate in marine environments and how mussels absorb them. Mussels are widely used as sentinel organisms to monitor ocean contamination because they filter large volumes of water. The chapter covers contamination sources, chemical properties, and detection methods.
This chapter describes types and levels of contaminants released into the marine environment due to anthropogenic activities. The main sources of contamination and physico-chemical properties of these substances are covered, as well as the common analytical methods used for their detection and quantification. The following are the main contaminants dealt with: heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, pesticides, dioxins, brominated flame retardants, surfactants, endocrine-disrupting compounds, pharmaceutical and personal care products, microplastics and nanoparticles. Also addressed are contaminant absorption and efficiency, kinetic modelling in contaminant bioaccumulation, factors affecting bioconcentration, mussel monitoring programmes and biological markers of pollution in marine mussel species, which include enzyme reactions, specific proteins, acetylcholinesterase inhibition, lysosome membrane stability and permeability, peroxisome proliferation, morphological damage and physiological and genotoxicity markers.