Heavy metals in the sediments of two Spanish coastal systems and their transfer to the food chain

Trace metals are one of the group of pollutants considered in the European Directives (WFD) and the Marine Strategies as potential toxicants and their levels should be controlled in the environment. These elements reach coastal systems through different pathways both natural and anthropogenic and depending on the human activities carried out in each area, different metals will appear in the environment. The sediments are the final reservoirs where these pollutants are deposited and concentrated and once there, they can be transferred to the food chain. In the present study, trace metal levels were measured in the sediments of two Spanish coastal systems with different sources of pollution, the Ría of Vigo in the Atlantic part is mainly affected by maritime transport and port industrial activities and the Mar Menor lagoon in the Mediterranean area with an important input coming from the mining district located in the southern mountain chain. In addition, organisms from different trophic levels were sampled in order to study the transfer of these metals to the food chain. Two of these species were the sea snail (Murex trunculus) and the cockle (Cerastoderma glaucum) its main nourishment.

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Santos-Echeandía J. León V.M. Besada V. Schultze F. y López-Rodríguez M. Heavy metals in the sediments of two Spanish coastal systems and their transfer to the food chain. Instituo Español de Oceanografía, 2017.

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Retrieved: 12 Nov 2025 22:31:22

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Resource type Article
Date of creation 2024-11-05
Date of last revision 2024-11-05
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Metadata identifier b27a294b-214b-5b8c-9b8c-46dbf0fd0717
Metadata language Spanish
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High-value dataset category Earth observation and environment
ISO 19115 topic category biota
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Name of the dataset creator Santos-Echeandía, J., León, V.M., Besada, V., Schultze, F., y López-Rodríguez, M.
Name of the dataset editor Instituo Español de Oceanografía
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Email of the dataset creator juan.santos@ieo.csic.es
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