Plankton as Biomonitoring agents of Hg Contamination in Khor Musa

In the study, the mercury concentrations in water, sediment and plankton in Khor Musa was investigated. The 9 samples of water and sediment were collected from each estuary and a total of 45 samples were taken. Sampling of phytoplankton and zooplankton was collected by net of 20 and 300 µm, respectively. After the concentrations of mercury by cold vapour method was measured using atomic absorption. The results showed that mercury concentrations range from 4.39±0.82 (mean±SE) to 11.66±2.14 µg/L in water and 0.26±0.03 to 0.76±0.04 µg/g of dry weight in sediments. The mercury concentrations 0.02±0.01 To 0.17±0.01 on phytoplankton and 0.10±0.01 to 0.47±0.07 µg/g for zooplankton were measured. The correlation factors showed that mercury concentrations in phytoplankton and zooplankton had significant positive correlation (P <0.05). With the mercury rising mercury concentrations in zooplankton increases in phytoplankton due to the high toxicity of mercury, the possibility of bioaccumulation and bio-magnification in the aquatic organisms and contamination of the waters in the estuary Moses regular monitoring is essential to ensure the health of ecosystems. Therefore, in this study to determine the amount of mercury in low levels of the food, chemical concentrations in water, sediments and plankton were measured in the estuary area of Khor Musa.