Dc. Gossiaux et al., THE ASSIMILATION OF CONTAMINANTS FROM SUSPENDED SEDIMENT AND ALGAE BYTHE ZEBRA MUSSEL, DREISSENA-POLYMORPHA, Chemosphere, 36(15), 1998, pp. 3181-3197
Since their invasion into the Great Lakes, zebra mussels, Dreissena po
lymorpha, have increased the water clarity in Lake St. Clair and Lake
Erie due to their extensive particle filtration. Because these particl
es contain sorbed contaminants, the potential for contaminant accumula
tion from both suspended sediment and algae were examined. Sediment or
algae were dosed with selected radiolabeled polycyclic aromatic hydro
carbon congeners and/or hexachlorobiphenyl (HCBP). Assimilation effici
encies were measured and depended on food quality. Zebra mussels, 17 /- 2 mm long, assimilated 58.3 +/- 13.5 % of the pyrene and 44.7 +/- 5
.8 % of the benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) from sediment particles with a partic
le clearance rate of 493 -897 ml/g tissue/h. However, assimilation eff
iciencies were 91.7 +/- 3.7 % for pyrene, 91.9 +/- 1.4 % for BaP, 96.6
+/- 1.4 % for chrysene, and 97.7 +/- 0.5 % for HCBP from suspended al
gae. Algal particle clearance rates for the mussels ranged from 47 -14
3 ml/g tissue/h. Thus, zebra mussels efficiently accumulated non-polar
contaminants sorbed to algae, while a smaller fraction of the sedimen
t-associated contaminant was bioavailable. Furthermore, the contaminan
ts sorbed onto suspended sediment particles were quickly removed from
the water and deposited as pseudofeces. The pseudofeces production was
positively correlated with filtration rate and suspended particle con
centrations. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.