Radioisotope techniques and aquatic ecotoxicology: importance of understanding kinetics and internal location of metals
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Date
2015-07-08
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of New South Wales and Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
Abstract
Aquatic ecotoxicology is primarily concerned with the bioaccumulation and effects of anthropogenic contaminants to a range of biota. Traditional methods of assessing the bioaccumulation of contaminants by an organism have typically relied on destructive techniques, generally involving the dissection of internal organs, followed by acid digestion and analysis. To understand how organisms accumulate contaminants over time using these traditional methods, a large number of organisms was required to be sacrificed. Gamma-emitting metal radioisotopes are valuable tools for studying metal bioaccumulation in aquatic invertebrates, allowing the influx and efflux of multiple metals to be analysed rapidly, at multiple intervals in live organisms during an exposure period (Hervé-Fernández et al., 2010, Cresswell et al., 2015). Furthermore, autoradiography of sacrificed and cryosectioned organisms enables the organ distribution of accumulated metals to be visualised and quantified. To cryosection, organisms are snap-frozen to limit the mobilisation of chemical species, preserve the integrity of the organs and allow much higher resolution of organ-specific metal analysis compared to tradition dissection-digestion techniques. This paper describes two studies on a freshwater decapod crustacean that examined the kinetics of non-essential (cadmium) and essential (zinc) metal accumulation in a mixture, and the kinetics of internal partitioning of cadmium among major organs using radioisotope techniques to model environmental conditions.
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Keywords
Aquatic ecosystems, Biological accumulation, Contamination, Organs, Decapods, Crustaceans, Metals, Radioisotopes
Citation
Cresswell, T., Mazumder, D., Callaghan, P., Nguyen, A., Corry, M., Simpson, S. (2015). Radioisotope techniques and aquatic ecotoxicology: importance of understanding kinetics and internal location of metals in organisms. Paper presented to the 13th Australasian Environment Isotope Conference (AEIC), Sydney, 8-10th July 2015.