The Bivalve Corbicula fluminalis (Müller, 1774): an Indicator for Heavy Metals Accumulation in the Habitat of Zayandeh-Roud River

The accumulation of the heavy metals Cd, Zn, Cu, and Pb were surveyed in the samples of mantle tissues, crusts and so the habitat sediments of C. fluminalis to reveal the probable biomonitoring rule of the bivalve in the ecosystem. The warm-cold seasonally samplings were carried out over the stations of Zayandeh-Roud River in Safi'eh, Isfahan province, during 2014.  The warm and cold seasonal average results from the initially acidic digested prepared samples of the bivalves (mantle and crust) and the sediments were recorded by furnace atomic absorption spectrometry methods. The results illustrated that the average of Zn accumulation has the maximum value in the sediment samples of warm-season samples (28.8±3.80 µg.g dry w.-1) as well the cold-season (16.9±1.23 µg.g dry w.-1). Furthermore, the accumulation values of zinc in the warm-season and the cold-season samples had the maximum values in the tissue samples with values 206.2±33.77 and 89.1 ± 19.02 µg.g dry w.-1 and the crust samples with values 35.6 ± 3.06 and 33.1 ± 3.10 µg.g dry w.-1 , respectively. Except for heavy metal Cd, the similarity values of the metals Zn, Pb and Cd in both sediment samples and the crusts of C. fluminalis demonstrates the relative extents of the heavy metals in the habitat of the bivalves with no seasonal effect on the values fluctuation. The levels of measured samples of mantles revealed the tissues of living C. fluminalis rule as the bioaccumulation of the metals Zn, Pb, Cu and Cd in the river ecosystem.