Arsenic speciation in marine organisms from Antarctic coastal environments

Marco Grotti; Cristina Lagomarsino; Walter Goessler; Kevin A. Francesconi

doi:10.1071/EN09131

RESEARCH ARTICLE

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Arsenic speciation in marine organisms from Antarctic coastal environments

Marco Grotti ^A , Cristina Lagomarsino ^A , Walter Goessler ^B and Kevin A. Francesconi ^B

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Genoa, Via Dodecaneso 31, I-16146 Genova, Italy.

^B Karl-Franzens-University Graz, Institute of Chemistry-Analytical Chemistry, Universitaetsplatz 1, A-8010 Graz, Austria.

^C Corresponding author. Email: grotti@chimica.unige.it

Environmental Chemistry 7(2) 207-214 https://doi.org/10.1071/EN09131
Submitted: 16 October 2009 Accepted: 19 January 2010 Published: 22 April 2010

Environmental context. In studies on trace element accumulation and transformation, it is difficult to distinguish the relative contribution of natural and anthropogenic sources. Antarctic ecosystems provide the opportunity to investigate the natural cycles of the elements, because the food webs are relatively simple and trace element contamination from anthropogenic sources is negligible. We report the arsenic species in various tissues from a range of Antarctic organisms, and compare the patterns of arsenicals with those from similar studies in temperate and tropical waters.

Abstract. Antarctic coastal environments offer the unique opportunity to study elemental cycling under pristine conditions. We report arsenic species in various tissues from a range of Antarctic organisms collected from coastal environments, and compare our results with those from similar studies in temperate and tropical waters. The arsenic species were determined in aqueous methanol extracts of tissues (including muscle, liver, gonads and spleen) by HPLC/ICPMS. The major compounds were arsenobetaine and oxo-arsenosugars, with their relative proportions depending on the position of the organism in the food chain and, for some species, on the type of tissue analysed. Several minor compounds, such as dimethylarsinate, trimethylarsine oxide, trimethylarsoniopropionate and arsenocholine were also found; the concentrations of these arsenic species were significantly lower in muscle compared with the other tissues. The transfer of the arsenic through the Antarctic marine food web and the speciation patterns found in the organisms were similar to those reported for comparable organisms from other marine ecosystems. Our study supports the view that the high levels of arsenic occurring in various forms in marine samples is a natural phenomenon, and is little influenced by anthropogenic activities.

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Arsenic speciation in marine organisms from Antarctic coastal environments

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