Monitoring of hydrocarbons in Shatt al-Arab River by using some species of molluscs

Abstract EN

This study comprises the monitoring of hydrocarbons in Shatt Al-Arab river water by using the native seven species of molluscs as bioindicators.

These species are the snails, Lymnaea auricularia, Theodoxus jordani, Physa acuta, Melanopsis nodosa, Melanoides tuberculata and the bivalves, Corbicula fluminea and Corbicula fluminalis.

The species of molluscs are collected from different locations of Shatt Al-Arab river (along the region extended from Abu-Al-Khasib to Garmat-Ali) during 2004 and 2005.

Each species consisted of at least 3500 adult of uniform size of individuals.

The hydrocarbons which extracted from these species of molluscs were analyzed by spectroflurometer.

The concentrations of total hydrocarbons in these species of Shatt Al–Arab river ranged from 1.

93 μg / g dry weight in the T.

jordani to 26.56 μg / g dry weight in the C.

fluminea.

The lowest fat content was in T.

jordani (0.

33 mg / g) and the highest was in C.

fluminea (0.

98 mg /g).

Significant relationships were obtained between the fat contents and hydrocarbons concentrations in the tissues of these species of molluscs (r = 0.

8-0.

9).