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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Artículo científico |
| Language: | en |
| Published: |
Marine pollution bulletin
2026
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40857891/ |
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Table of Contents:
- Toxic traces: First insights into metals and metalloids in dugongs (Dugong dugon) from India. Iyer, Sweta Pande, Anant Ghanekar, Chinmaya Kuppusamy, Sivakumar Johnson, Jeyaraj Antony Animals India Water Pollutants, Chemical Metalloids Environmental Monitoring Metals Female Male Dugong Metals and metalloid pollution poses significant threats to coastal ecosystem and their inhabitants, particularly dugongs, which rely exclusively on seagrass habitats. Dugongs, one of the most vulnerable herbivores, face declining populations due to habitat loss, unsustainable fishing, and rising pollution. Although earlier studies revealed increasing metal and metalloid accumulation in dugong tissues over time, globally there remains a dearth of information across their distribution range including India. This study analyzes the concentrations of five toxic elements - arsenic, cadmium, chromium, mercury, and lead - in tissues of various organs from 46 dugongs stranded along the Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar regions in India between 2018 and 2023. We found traces of arsenic in the kidney and skin tissues, cadmium in the kidney and heart, chromium in the skin and blubber, lead in the skin and lungs, and mercury in the liver and kidney tissues. This is the first documentation of metal and metalloid accumulation in the tissues of blubber, heart, lungs, and skin of dugongs globally. Males exhibited significant higher concentrations of metals and metalloids compared to females. Moreover, concentrations positively correlated with age and size revealing bioaccumulation over time. We also observed mercury transfer from mother to fetus, during gestation. Since metals and metalloids primarily enter in dugong tissues through their diet in coastal areas contaminated by environmental pollutants, there is an urgent need for a landscape-seascape level management plan to control pollution in the ecologically significant Important Marine Mammal Area encompassing the Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar regions.