Document of bibliographic reference 369132

BibliographicReference record

Type

Bibliographic resource

Type of document

Journal article

BibLvlCode

AS

Title

Bioaccumulation and biomagnification of heavy metals in marine micro-predators

Abstract

Nematodes represent >3/5 of the abundance of the world’s metazoans and usually account for nearly 90% of the total benthic fauna, playing a key ecological role in the benthic ecosystem functioning on a global scale. These small metazoans include a relevant number of microscopic predators and, in turn, are the most abundant preys of macro-megafauna and fish juveniles thus playing a key role in marine food webs. Here, using two independent approaches, we test the bioaccumulation in marine nematodes of several heavy metals present in contaminated sediments. We report here that nematodes, despite their short life cycle and small size, bioaccumulate significantly heavy metals. Bioaccumulation increases from deposit feeders and microalgal grazers to predators of microbes and other tiny metazoans. These results suggest that nematodes also contribute to their biomagnification along the food webs and can contribute to increase the transfer of contaminants from the sediments to larger organisms.

WebOfScience code

https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:001114814700005

Bibliographic citation

Danovaro, R.; Cocozza di Montanara, A.; Corinaldesi, C.; Dell'Anno, A.; Illuminati, S.; Willis, T.J.; Gambi, C. (2023). Bioaccumulation and biomagnification of heavy metals in marine micro-predators. Communications Biology 6(1): 1206. https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05539-x

Topic

Marine

Is peer reviewed

true

Access rights

open access

Is accessible for free

true