CONCENTRATIONS OF HEAVY METALS IN THE TISSUES OF TROUT SALMO TRUTTA AND CHAR SALVELINUS ALPINUS FROM TWO LAKES IN NORTH WALES

• Main Author: Ian G. Cowx
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Salvelinus alpinus
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.627.4053; http://www2.hull.ac.uk/discover/pdf/Cowx82.pdf

Comparison was made of the zinc, iron, manganese and copper content of five tissues of brown trout Salmo trutta L. and char Salvelinus alpinus L. from two oligotrophic lakes in North Wales. Tissue metal concentrations were not related to fish growth parameters ineither species. None of the metals were evenly distributed throughout the tissues of trout or char and, with the exception of manganese being concentrated in the skeletal tissues, liver and kidney were found to contain the highest metal concentrations. Significantly different concentrations of zinc, iron and copper were found in the liver and kidney of trout compared with char. Despite the similar environmental metal evels of the two lakes, Llyn Peris char were found to contain significantly higher concentrations of iron in their livers than Padarn char. The possibility that environmentally distinct char populations exist in the lakes is discussed.