Field transplantation of the freshwater bivalve Corbicula fluminea along a polymetallic contamination gradient (river Lot, France): I. Geochemical characteristics of the sampling sites and cadmium and zinc bioaccumulation kinetics

Specimens of the Asiatic clam Corbicula fluminea were transplanted from a clean lacustrine site to four stations along a polymetallic gradient in the river Lot (France), downstream from an old Zn ore treatment facility. The bivalves were held in benthic cages for a 5-month exposure period, April to September 1996; mollusk growth and metal bioaccumulation kinetics (Cd, Zn) were followed by subsampling the cages at t = 0, 21, 49, 85, 120, and 150 d. Rates of Cd bioaccumulation in the whole soft bodies and in individual organs were greater at the upstream stations located close to the pollution source, but there was no direct proportionality between Cd in the bivalves and in the unfiltered or filtered river water samples. Unlike the case for Cd, rates of Zn bioaccumulation did not reflect the contamination gradient. Marked growth differences were measured among the four stations, reflecting both nutritional differences and changes in the degree of metal contamination; these growth differences produced markedly different trends when metal bioaccumulation was expressed in terms of burdens rather than concentrations.