RT Journal Article
T1 Assessing the effectiveness of seaweed transplants in reflecting seawater pollution levels
A1 Vázquez Arias, Antón
A1 Boquete Seoane, María Teresa
A1 Fernández Escribano, José Ángel
A1 Aboal Viñas, Jesús
K1 PTE
K1 Heavy metal
K1 Macroalgae
K1 Biomonitoring
K1 Cd
K1 Pb
AB Seaweed transplants have been widely used to monitor coastal marine pollution, yet their effectiveness in reflecting seawater elemental concentrations remains uncertain. This study investigated the relationship between elemental concentrations in Fucus vesiculosus transplants (both fresh and dried) and seawater samples representative of the transplants’ exposure period collected using autosamplers. The transplants were deployed across 22 coastal sites in northwest Spain over 14 days. No significant correlations were found between seawater elemental concentrations and those in transplants for any element. Similarly, seawater physicochemical properties (pH, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, and temperature) and the pre-exposure concentrations in transplants had minimal influence on post-exposure levels. Elemental concentrations in native seaweeds at the exposure sites were not correlated with those in transplants (except for Zn in the fresh transplants) and did not reflect seawater concentrations either. These findings highlight that element concentrations in seaweed do not follow a straightforward linear relationship between exposure and tissue concentrations. Instead, they result from a complex interplay of various, yet unknown environmental factors that influence element bioavailability in the water and the physicochemical properties of the seaweed. This complexity calls into question the suitability of seaweed transplants as effective biomonitors for marine pollution.
PB Elsevier
SN 0269-7491
YR 2025
FD 2025-05-14
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10347/44084
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10347/44084
LA eng
NO Vázquez-Arias, A., Boquete, M. T., Fernández, J. Á, & Aboal, J. R. (2025). Assessing the effectiveness of seaweed transplants in reflecting seawater pollution levels. Environmental Pollution, 377, 126456. 10.1016/j.envpol.2025.126456
NO This research has received funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MCIN/AEI), through the “Proyectos de Generación del Conocimiento 2022” program under the project ID “PID2022-142802NB-I00, CoastProtect”. A. Vázquez-Arias is grateful to the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities for a grant awarded within the Programa de Formación de Profesorado Universitario (grant number FPU19/01989). M. Teresa Boquete is grateful to the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities for a grant awarded within the María Zambrano program.
DS Minerva
RD 29 abr 2026