BIOINDICADORES ANIMAIS DE METAIS POLUENTES

Abstract

This study is a systematic review of scientific literature. This type of study aims the integration of information about a specific subject, by grouping and analysing the results from primary studies, allowing the identification of scientific evidence. The objective of this review was to identify in the scientific literature, evidences which support the use of birds, mollusks and fish as animals' bio-indicators of the heavy metal pollution. Search on the Medline, Lilacs, Repidisca and Scielo databases was made on August 14th of 2009 which generated a total of 1654 studies references. After applying relevance tests, 1640 were excluded and 14 were included. The summary of the information extracted from the articles used in the data analysis of this review is presented in synopsis' graphics. In overall, its showed that birds, fish and mollusks are good bio-indicators of metal pollution in the environment. However, the study results clearly indicated that the metal distribution is not uniform in and among the birds' feathers. For most metals, the external contamination seems to affect the feathers' concentration after their formation, resulting in a higher concentration in the feathers and in segments that are more exposed to external conditions. Some metals, such as the cadmium, has its concentration increase as the age and this can mislead the interpretations in ecological studies and when we evaluate eggs from birds' species, should also be taken the same care. In reference to mollusks, was evident that there is not an uniform accumulation of metals nor in the shells or in the soft parts of their bodies. In reference to fish, different fish tissues have been used to analyse the metal concentration; however, because of their different roles in the process of bio-accumulation, the flesh of the tissues, liver and gills are the most frequent used for analysis. In general, studies have shown that birds, fish and shellfish are to be good bioindicators of metal pollutants in nature.