Assessment of Toxic Metals Concentration using Pearl Oyster, ‎Pinctada radiate, as Bioindicator on the Coast of Persian Gulf, Iran‎

Background: persian gulf is a semi-closed environment which is affected by pollution ‎from heavy metals. entrance of heavy metals to the water column and binding to ‎sediment particles can affect the benthic organisms that can accumulate these ‎materials in their body. noticing this ability, mussels are considered as bio-monitoring ‎agents.‎methods: the pearl oyster, pinctada radiate, and sediment samples were collected ‎from lengeh port and qeshm island. for measuring heavy metals, 0.5g of soft tissue ‎and 1g of shell and sediment were digested by hno3 (69%) and hot block digester. the ‎prepared samples were evaluated for cd, cu, and zn using a flame aas model 67og ‎while for pb a graphite furnace aas was used.‎results: higher metal accumulations were observed in soft tissues. positive ‎correlations between cd, pb, zn, and cu concentrations in sediments and soft tissues ‎of oyster were observed. the use of soft tissue of p. radiata as an indicator showed the ‎highest accumulations of cd (9.76±0.59) and zn (3142.60±477.10) in lengeh port, but ‎there were no significant differences in cu and pb concentrations between the two ‎stations.‎conclusion: the higher concentrations of heavy metals in p. radiata’ soft tissue in ‎comparison to shell suggested this material as a better heavy metals indicator than ‎shell. also, the correlation between heavy metals concentration in soft tissue and ‎sediment improve this idea that soft tissue of pinctada radiata can be considered as a ‎biomonitoring agent for toxic metals pollutions. hence, using this bioindicator showed ‎lengeh port as more polluted station than qeshm island.‎