Comparison of S, Se, and 210Po accumulation patterns in common squid Todarodes pacificus from the Yellow Sea and East/Japan Sea

Abstract

Activities of 210Po and concentrations of the chalcogen elements S and Se, were measured in muscle, stomach, gill, and hepatopancreas tissues of two groups of the common squid, Todarodes pacificus, from common spawning grounds but different feeding grounds: The Yellow Sea and the East/Japan Sea. All elements displayed lowest concentrations in the muscle tissues, but while S was highest in stomach and gills tissues, Se and 210Po were highest in hepatopancreas tissues, probably due to compartmentalization based on their toxicity. Whole body burden calculations based on organ weight contributions confirmed that the majority of the squids total S is contributed by the muscle while the majority of 210Po is contributed by the hepatopancreas. Overall, squids from the East/Japan Sea displayed significantly higher 210Po activities than those from the Yellow Sea, in line with previous reports on higher activities of dissolved 210Po in the water column of the former compared to the latter, which likely affects bioaccumulation by the foodweb. Tissue-based correlation patterns of the three chalcogens with each other and with the toxic heavy metal Cd suggest S- and Se-containing detoxifying mechanisms for 210Po and Cd in stomach and gills, but not in the hepatopancreas, which supports previous hypotheses that both 210Po and Cd could be bound to S- and Se-depleted compounds in the squid hepatopancreas. ? 2013 Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute (KORDI) and the Korean Society of Oceanography (KSO) and Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.