Importance of Standardized Reporting of Elemental Concentrations in Fish Tissues

ABSTRACT

Given that fish are considered as one of the best pollution indicators of aquatic ecosystems, numerous studies have been carried out on metal pollution in fish. Metal concentrations are commonly expressed either per unit of wet or dry tissue weight. However, there is a lack of standardized reporting of elemental concentrations, with the majority publications using dry tissue weight as a measurement unit. Moreover, a significant number of papers also does not clearly report which of the two measurement units is used. Lack of standardized reporting obstructs comparability of studies that use different measurement units, which could be resolved either by reporting elemental concentrations using both types of measurement units (i.e., with one of them provided in the supplementary material, or alternatively to provide wet to dry weight conversion factors). This issue, while being of substantial importance for the scientific community, has not received proper attention so far.

Key Words:

• metal
• fish
• wet weight
• dry weight
• accumulation

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia, Project No. TR37009 and Project No. 173045. The authors thank two anonymous referees for providing helpful comments and suggestions that substantially improved the quality of the article.