Biomonitoring

Several decades after World Wars I and II sea dumped munitions are now corroding and leaking, thereby representing a hazard not only for marine ecosystems but also for humans. The blue mussel Mytilus edulis serves as an ideal and integrative biomonitoring system to unequivocally identify and quantify all toxic chemicals that leak out into the marine environment and enter the marina biota.

Blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) are suitable both for medium and long-term monitoring of munition chemicals, because they are filter feeding organisms filtering many liters of water every day and as a result concentrate chemicals in their tissues, their ability to metabolize organic contaminants is low relative to other marine organisms, they are robust and survive under moderate levels of different pollutions, and due to their sedentary property they are not only distributed world wide in stable local populations but at the same time represent a specific area. Moreover, repeated sampling of natural occurring specimens is possible, and mussels are ideally suitable to be transplanted to test areas for controlled biomonitoring. Beyond that, as primary consumers many bivalves are important sea food species and can be used as indicators for the entry of toxic substances into the marine food chain.