Seasonal variation of Zinc and Sodium in different sea weeds at selected locations of Kollam Seacoast, Kerala State

  • Hashim. K. A, Padma kumar, Santhosh. S

Abstract

Coastal and marine environments throughout the world suffer from high pollution caused by the humans. Heavy metals are considered major anthropogenic contaminants in the coastal and marine environments throughout the world (Ruilian et al., 2008). They are a serious threat to living organisms and natural ecosystems due to their toxicity (DeForest et al., 2007). Heavy metals can contribute to the degradation of marine ecosystems by reducing the diversity of species and through the accumulation of metals in living organisms and food chains (Hosono et al.,2011).Seaweeds contribute a key role in the nutrient dynamics of coastal systems as well as reflect alterations in water quality efficiently. Therefore, every change in the nature of the dynamics will likely be reflected by them (Zbikowski et al., 2007).Seaweeds are excellent agents of filtering the metals like arsenic, zinc, iron, nickel and mercury from seawater. They remove the toxic materials from the environment and accumulate in the body cell. The absorption of metals present in the seaweed depends on the surface reaction in which metals absorbed through electrostatic attraction to negatives sites. This is independent of factors influencing metabolism such as pH, temperature, light or age of the plant, but it is inclined by the virtual abundance of elements in water (Sanchez-Rodriguez et al., 2001). The knowledge of trace metals levels in marine algae is a basic requirement for their use as biological indicators of metal pollution.

Published
2019-12-11
Section
Articles