Arsenic Concentrations in Some Coexisting Marine Organisms from Newfoundland and Labrador

Abstract

Inorganic arsenic concentrations in sea water and mud, and total arsenic concentrations in bodies of shrimp, zooplankton, and fish from northern Newfoundland and southern Labrador were measured. There was a positive relationship between concentration and carapace length in Pandalus borealis and P. montagui and a negative relationship in Eualus macilentus. There was no relationship between concentrations in shrimp eggs and carapace length. Arsenic concentrations in zooplankton and fish muscle were relatively low compared with the shrimp species; amphipods contained more arsenic than copepods or euphausiids, and American plaice (Hippoglossoides platessoides) more than redfish (Sebastes marinus), turbot (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides), and Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua). There was no evidence of increasing arsenic concentrations through successively higher levels of the food chain.