Bioaccumulation of Toxic Metals in Freshwater Fish in Brazil: Gaps, Applications, and Future Directions for Environmental Biomonitoring

• Published in: Water, air, and soil pollution Vol. 234; no. 11; p. 671
• Main Authors: Silva, Virginia Marques, Santana, Gregório Mateus, de Jesus Pinto, Marianna, dos Santos, Pâmela Rebeca Moreno, Braga, Luis Gustavo Tavares, Navoni, Julio Alejandro, de Jesus, Raildo Mota
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01-11-2023; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Analysis; Aquatic ecosystems; Aquatic environment; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Bioaccumulation; Biodiversity; Biological monitoring; Biomonitoring; Biotic factors; Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts; Contamination; Database industry; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecological balance; Ecology; Ecosystem components; Effluents; Environment; Environmental monitoring; Fish; Fish as food; Fishes; Fresh water; Freshwater; Freshwater fish; Freshwater fishes; Heavy metals; Hydrogeology; Industrial development; Industrialization; Inland water environment; Legislation; Literature reviews; Metal concentrations; Metal industry; Metals; Natural environment; Reproduction; Skin; Soil Science & Conservation; Toxins; Urbanization; Water quality; Water Quality/Water Pollution; Brazil; Natural and experimental environment; Pollution; Aquatic environments; Food security
• DOI: 10.1007/s11270-023-06682-1
• EISSN: 1573-2932
• ISSN: 0049-6979

Freshwater aquatic environments provide humanity with a wide range of resources and contribute to biodiversity and ecological balance. Brazil has one of the largest freshwater reserves in the world; however, residue from industrialization and urbanization, especially toxic metals that can bioaccumulate in organisms, reduces water quality. An effective strategy for assessing toxic metal presence in aquatic ecosystems involves examining their bioaccumulation in fish, encompassing both field (natural environment) and experimental investigations. Therefore, this comprehensive literature review encompasses an analysis of studies pertaining to the bioaccumulation of toxic metals in freshwater fish within the Brazilian context. Articles indexed in the Scopus and Science Direct databases, published between 2015 and 2022, were scrutinized. The bioaccumulation of metals in fish presented several applications such as evaluating the contamination of an environment, estimating consequences on zootechnical and reproductive performance, investigating the influence of abiotic and biotic factors, describing interactions with other substances, and verifying the effects of effluents from industrialization, urbanization, agriculture, and mining. The review revealed several research applications related to the topic, identified studies in which the concentration of toxic metals in fish was above the limit of Brazilian legislation, and detected gaps in the research such as the absence of analysis of skin and bone, low frequency of research into diet as the route of exposure to toxins, and a low analysis of three environmental matrices in research carried out in the natural environment.