Physiological testing of Mytilus galloprovincialis for the environmental assessing of coastal marine areas: a case study in Boka Kotorska Bay (the Adriatic Sea)

ABSTRACT

The aim of this work was to validate in the field certain measurement of the heart rate alterations of the bioindicator organism Mytilus galloprovicialis as a tool for ecotoxicological biomonitoring and assessment applications related to coastal and marine environment. The latter was determined by testing the mussels according to the method of functional loading (1-hour lowered salinity stress-exposure). The time of heart rate (HR) recovery (T_rec) and the coefficient of HR variation (CV_HR) in a group of tested animals were used as biomarkers for the assessment of their physiological state. It was found that the values of the biomarkers in mussels from our reference location were 1.3-1.5 times lower than in mussels from differently polluted coastal areas of the Bay. The study also included an investigation of the relationship between the mussel’s cardiac rhythm characteristics and the bioaccumulation of trace elements in their soft tissues, caused by chronic pollution. The conclusion was drawn that this approach to the physiological testing of mussels could be useful in developing a rapid and low-cost method for the assessment of the health of coastal ecosystems.

KEYWORDS:

• Marine coastal areas
• biological effects of pollution
• heart rate variability
• Mytilus galloprovincialis
• trace elements in tissues
• the Adriatic Sea

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Sergey Kholodkevich is a Doctor of Tech Sci., the Head of the Laboratory, a Leading Scientist at Scientific Research Center for Ecological Safety Russian Academy of Sciences at St.-Petersburg, Russia. He is also a Professor at Faculty of Geography at St.-Petersburg State University in the Department of Ecological Safety and Regional Sustainable Development. He graduated in the Faculty of Physics at Leningrad State University.

Andrey Sharov is a Leading researcher at the St.-Petersburg Scientific Research Center for Ecological Safety (SRCES) and senior researcher at the Papanin Institute for the Biology of Inland Waters (IBWW) Russian Academy of Sciences. He earned an M.S. Biological Sciences at Petrozavodsk State University and a doctorate in Ecology at Institute of Limnology Russia in 2000.

Tatiana Kuznetsova is a Senior Scientific associate of comparative physiology and bioindication of marine coastal areas using benthic invertebrates at Scientific Research Center for Ecological Safety Russian Academy of Sciences at St.-Petersburg, Russia. She graduated from The Faculty of Biology (Leningrad, now St.-Petersburg) in 1985, and defended her PhD at Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry (St.-Petersburg, Russia) in 2003.

Anton Kurakin is a Senior researcher at St.-Petersburg Scientific Research Center for Ecological Safety (SRCES). He earned an engineer’s degree in Environmental Engineering at St.-Petersburg State Polytechnical University in 2001.

Danijela Joksimović is a Senior scientific associate of marine chemistry at the Institute of Marine biology - University of Montenegro in Kotor. She graduated and obtained a master’s degree from The Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics - Department Chemistry, University of Kragujevac. The PhD dissertation in the field marine chemistry was defended at the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy of the University of Belgrade.

Marko Nikolić is a Project assistant at the Institute of Marine Biology - University of Montenegro in Kotor. He finished Faculty of Natural Science and Mathematics, Department Biology – Ecology in Podgorica. He is a PhD student at Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Department of Biology and Ecology, University of Novi Sad. His research areas include marine ecology, ecotoxicology and ecophysiology of marine invertebrates.

ORCID

Andrey Sharov http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7581-2538

Additional information

Funding

This work has been supported by the Ministry of Science of Montenegro, and HERIC project through the BIO-ICT Centre of Excellence (Contract No. 01-1001) and partly by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Montenegro.