Metals toxic effect in aquatic ecosystems: modulaters of water quality

The topic of this work was based on the assessment of aquatic systems quality related
to the persistent metal pollution. The use of aquatic organisms as bioindicators of metal
pollution allowed the obtaining of valuable information about the acute and chronic
toxicity on common Romanian aquatic species and the estimation of the environment
quality. Laboratory toxicity results showed that Cd, As, Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni, Zr, and Ti have
toxic to very toxic effcts on Cyprinus carpio, and this observation could raise concerns
because of its importance as a fihery resource. The benthic invertebrates’ analysis
showed that bioaccumulation level depends on species, type of metals, and sampling
sites. The metal analysis from the shells of three mollusk species showed that the metals
involved in the metabolic processes (Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, and Mg) were more accumulated
than the toxic ones (Pb, Cd). The bioaccumulation factors of metals in benthic inverte‐
brates were subunitary, which indicated a slow bioaccumulation process in the studied
aquatic ecosystems. The preliminary aquatic risk assessment of Ni, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, As,
and Zn on C. carpio revealed insignifiant to moderate risk considering the measured
environmental concentrations, acute and long‐term effcts and environmental
compartment.