bioaccumulation and distribution of heavy metals (se, as and pb) in muscle, gill and hepatopancreas of blue crab portunus pelagicus, bushehr coast, persian gulf

Heavy metals can be classified as potentially toxic elements such as cadmium, lead and mercury and essential elements such as copper, zinc and iron (hosseini et al., 2013).toxic metals naturally occur in aquatic environments in very low concentrations, but their concentration levels have increased due to anthropogenic pollutants (huang, 2003) over time. industrial activities as well as agriculture and mining create a potential source of metal pollution in aquatic environments (fitzgerald et al., 2007).