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Heavy Metal Contamination in the Cultivated Oyster Crassostrea rivularis and Associated Health Risks from a Typical Mariculture Zone in the South China Sea

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Abstract

With the rapid development of mariculture in potentially contaminated regions in China and the world, food safety, is a growing concern. To evaluate heavy metals and their associated health risks in the cultivated oyster Crassostrea rivularis, the concentrations of heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Pb, Zn) in oysters and water/sediment were examined in a typical mariculture environment (Kaozhou Bay, South China Sea). Trends in the seasonal dynamics of heavy metals in oysters revealed a potential synergistic effects among the concentrations of Cd, Cr, and Zn; trends associated with Pb were less clear, although the ability of oysters to bioaccumulate and depurate Pb was excellent. Bioconcentration factors (BCF) indicated that C. rivularis has a strong ability to accumulate heavy metals, and the BCF was the highest for Zn (2.32 × 105), followed by Cd (6.84 × 104), Pb (2.77 × 104) and Cr (1.23 × 103) through the four seasons. Results showed that Cd concentrations in oysters could pose a risk to human health (HQ > 1). This study, therefore, suggests that there are potential human health risks due to heavy metal exposure through the consumption of C. rivularis from mariculture zones in South China Sea.

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Acknowledgements

This investigation was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China (U1301235, 41503072), Chinese Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest (201403008), and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Fishery Ecology and Environment (LFE-2015-11). We thank Prof. Larry Liddle (Long Island University, USA) and Zhili He (University of Oklahoma, USA) for their help with the article. Special thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Hydrobiology, Key Laboratory of Aquatic Eutrophication and Control of Harmful Algal Blooms, Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, People’s Republic of China

    Hongtian Luo, Qing Wang, Xiangping Nie, Hui Ren, Zhuo Shen, Xinfei Xie & Yufeng Yang

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  1. Hongtian Luo
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  2. Qing Wang
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  3. Xiangping Nie
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Correspondence to Yufeng Yang.

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Luo, H., Wang, Q., Nie, X. et al. Heavy Metal Contamination in the Cultivated Oyster Crassostrea rivularis and Associated Health Risks from a Typical Mariculture Zone in the South China Sea. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 101, 33–41 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-018-2360-2

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