Accumulation of heavy metals by a common water mite Hydrodroma despiciens (O.F. Müller,1776) in laboratory condition

The objective of this study was to determine the resistance level of hydrodroma despiciens which is a common water mite species against various heavy metals and manifest their ecological impact levels. water mite samples were collected from karamik lake (afyonkarahisar,turkey) on a seasonal basis during 2013-2014 to this end. an equal number of samples were placed into separate aquariums to study each metal salt. increasing concentrations of heavy metal nitrate salts such as ni(no3)2,cu(no3)2,cd(no3)2,hg(no3)2 and pb(no3)2 were added periodically into the aquaria. the icp (inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy icp-oes; spectro genesis,germany) analysis of the lake water revealed medium and low levels of heavy metal ratios. it was observed that this mite absorbed each different heavy metals ni(no3)2,cu(no3)2,cd(no3)2,hg(no3)2 and pb(no3)2 in different ratios and that very low concentrations of hg had the most severe negative impact,while high concentrations of ni appeared to have the least negative impact. copyright 2016 zoological society of pakistan.