Long-Term Biomonitoring of Heavy Metal Pollution of Ussuri Bay, Sea of Japan

AbstractThe concentrations of Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, and Ni were studied in the brown algae Sargassum miyabei Yendo and S. pallidum (Turner) C. Agardh collected in Ussuri Bay, Sea of Japan, from 2001 to 2018. The degree of heavy metal pollution in different parts of the bay was assessed by comparing the actually measured concentrations of the metals in algae with the upper threshold values of their background ranges of concentrations (CUT). The coefficient of metal contamination risk for algae (KR) was calculated as the ratio of the metal concentration in algae to CUT. In 2016–2018, the KR values for Cd and Ni reached 1.7; for Zn, 2.0; for Fe, 3.1; for Mn, 7.2; for Pb, 12.3; and for Cu, 15.0. The maximum concentrations of most elements were recorded from the Sargassum algae collected off the Vladivostok municipal solid waste landfill operated in 1967–2010. In this part of the bay, the major pollutants in 2016–2018 were Pb and Cu; the accompanying pollutants were Zn, Mn, Fe, and Ni.