Shell Growth of Large Benthic Foraminifera under Heavy Metals Pollution: Implications for Geochemical Monitoring of Coastal Environments

Nir Ben-Eliahu, Barak Herut, Eyal Rahav and Sigal Abramovich
Additional contact information
Nir Ben-Eliahu: Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel
Barak Herut: National Institute of Oceanography, Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research, Haifa 31080, Israel
Eyal Rahav: National Institute of Oceanography, Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research, Haifa 31080, Israel
Sigal Abramovich: Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 10, 1-16

Abstract: This study was promoted by the recent efforts using larger benthic foraminiferal (LBF) shells geochemistry for the monitoring of heavy metals (HMs) pollution in the marine environment. The shell itself acts as a recorder of the ambient water chemistry in low to extreme HMs-polluted environments, allowing the monitoring of recent-past pollution events. This concept, known as sclerochronology, requires the addition of new parts (i.e., new shell) even in extreme pollution events. We evaluated the physiological resilience of three LBF species with different shell types and symbionts to enriched concentrations of Cd, Cu, and Pb at levels several folds higher than the ecological criteria maximum concentration (CMC) (165–166, 33–43, 1001–1206 µg L −1 , respectively), which is derived from aquatic organisms’ toxicity tests. The physiological response of the holobiont was expressed by growth rates quantified by the addition of new chambers (new shell parts), and by the chlorophyll a of the algal symbionts. The growth rate decrease varied between 0% and 30% compared to the unamended control for all HMs tested, whereas the algal symbionts exhibited a general non-fatal but significant response to Pb and Cu. Our results highlight that shell growth inhibition of LBF is predicted in extreme concentrations of 57 × CMC of Cu and 523 × CMC of Cd, providing a proof of concept for shell geochemistry monitoring, which is currently not used in the regulatory sectors.

Keywords: larger benthic foraminifera; heavy metals; pollution; physiological resilience; symbionts; marine ecology; coastal monitoring; sclerochronology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/10/3741/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/10/3741/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:10:p:3741-:d:362698

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().