Title
A comparison of the bioaccumulation patterns of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) inbarnacles and mussels in selected sites of Peninsular Malaysia

Principle investigator
Dr. Vahab Vaezzadeh
Affiliation: Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (GIGCAS) 511 Kehua Street, Wushan, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, GD 510640

Members
Professor Dr. Tatsuya Kunisue
Affiliation: Center for Marine Environmental Studies, Ehime University, Bunkyo-cho 2-5,
Matsuyama 790-8577, JapanDr. Chui Wei Bong
Affiliation: Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences (IOES), University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia

Aim
1- To investigate bioaccumulation patterns of POPs in barnacles’ soft tissues in Malaysian coasts
2- To assess the potentiality of barnacles to be used as biomonitors of POPs in coastal
environment
3- To compare bioaccumulation patterns of POPs in barnacles’ and mussels’ soft tissues

Procedure
Barnacles (n=10) and green mussels (n=4) were collected from the west, south and east coastsof Peninsular Malaysia. Table 1 illustrates the GPS data, location types and names of thesampling stations. Mussels’ sampling stations were selected according to their availability inbarnacles’ habitats, while barnacles were collected from both hot spots and remote areas in
Peninsular Malaysia. The barnacle species collected in this study was Amphibalanus sp. in allstations, except TI1 and TI2 where Tetraclita sp. was collected (Fig. 1), while mussel species
was Perna sp. Samples were transferred on ice to the lab and stored at -20 °C. Later, barnacles’and mussels’ soft tissues were separated from the shells, homogenized and freeze-dried. The
freeze-dried soft tissues were transferred to CMES for further analysis. Briefly, samples wereextracted using an accelerator solvent extractor and spiked with surrogate standards. The
extracts were then subjected to gel permeation chromatography (GPC) using hexane/DCM (1:1)
for lipid removal. The extracts were concentrated and eluted using a glass column packed with1 / 4

baked silica gel. ForFig. 1. (a) Tetraclita sp. from TI1 and TI2. (b) Amphibalanus sp. from the rest of stations

Table 1 GPS data, location names and types of the sampling stations
StationLatLongLocation name

Area

JB 1

1.3612114

103.6246528

Johor Bahru St1

Beach (Jetty/Rural)

JB 2

1.3766826

103.6389131

Johor Bahru St2

Mangrove (Port/Industrial)

PK1

2.9554970

101.3616386

Port Klang St1

Mangrove (Port/Industrial/Urban)

PK2

2.9793902

101.3899040

Port Klang St2

Mangrove (Port/Industrial/Urban)

KS3.1070735

101.3287641

Kampung Sementa

Mangrove (Industrial)

PR

4.8367822

100.6203783

Perak

Mangrove (Rural)PG

5.3322557

100.4047592

PinangBeach (Industrial/Urban)

PD2.5245472

101.7898851

Port Dickson

Beach (Old port)

TI 1

2.7403901

104.1302070

Tioman Island St1

Beach (Tourist)

TI 2

2.8536689

104.1918784

Tioman Island S2

Beach (Tourist)

this purpose, 80 ml of 5% DCM/hexane were used. The elution were further concentrated andinternal standard was added. Later, the elution was evaporated to near dryness with gentle
stream of nitrogen. Gas chromatography mass spectrometry was used to analyze target
compounds.

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Results and discussion
The maximum concentrations of ∑PCBs and ∑PBDEs in barnacles were detected at 301 and251 ng g-1 lw both in PK2 (Port Klang). Port Klang is located at the end of the Klang River, themost polluted river in Malaysia passing through populated and industrialized areas of the capital
city of Kuala Lumpur, while the Port itself is among the busiest in the world with heavy shipping
traffic. A total of 12 PCB congeners were found in 100% of the barnacles, while CB153 was thepredominant congener, similar to turtle eggs from Malaysia (van de Merwe et al., 2010), mussels
from Netherlands–Belgium (Ael et al., 2012), molluscs from Senegal (Bodin et al., 2011),
bivalves from Spain (Rodil et al., 2019) and fish from Baltic Sea (Burreau et al., 2004). As forPBDEs, BDE47 was the most frequent PBDE in barnacles, which is common in biota and havebeen widely detected around the world (Bayen et al., 2005). The highest concentrations of∑PCBs and ∑PBDEs in green mussels were detected at 178 and 113 ng g-1 lw both in PK1 (PortKlang). Lower concentrations of PCBs and PBDEs (ng g-1 lw) were detected in mussels
compared to barnacles from similar habitat, while the bioaccumulation patterns were to a large
extent similar to barnacles. The concentrations of POPs in barnacles and the comparison of theoutcomes with mussels showed that barnacles can be a good biomonitor for distribution of POPsin the coastal environment. Table 2 shows the maximum concentrations of PCBs and PBDEs inthis study compared to some previous studies.

Table 2 Maximum concentration of PCBs and PBDEs from different studies
PBDEs (ng g-1 lw)

References

596

na

Wang et al. (2008)

Mussel, Malaysia

250naMonirith et al. (2003)

Mussel, Greenland38.5

5.5

Christensen et al. (2002)

Barnacle, Malaysia

301

251

Present study

Mussel, Malaysia

178

113

Present study

Location

PCBs ( ng g-1 ww)

PBDEs ( ng g-1 ww)

Mangrove biota, Singapore

190

9.9

Bayen et al. (2005)

Mussel, Netherlands–Belgium

1688

12.4

Ael et al. (2012)

Bivalves, Scotland

na

2.74

Fernandes et al. (2008)

Barnacle, Malaysia

1.73

1.06

Present study

Mussel, Malaysia

3.95

2.51

Present study

Location

PCBs

Mollusc, China(ng g-1 lw)

na - not available

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