TRACE-METAL ACCUMULATION IN MARINE-INVERTEBRATES - MARINE BIOLOGY OR MARINE CHEMISTRY

This brief review aims to contrast aspects of the accumulation of trac e metals by marine invertebrates that are expected and explicable from the comparative chemical properties of the trace metals themselves, a nd those apparently affected to a greater degree by the comparative bi ology of the invertebrate itself. Many features of the uptake and meta bolic detoxification of accumulated trace metals follow expected chemi cal principles such as the Irving-Williams series. Nevertheless marine invertebrates, closely related within taxa, may show different patter ns of the accumulation of a particular trace metal, as a result of dif ferences in their biology.