Biological effects of contaminants in mussels
Contaminants and effects monitoring is undertaken in Scottish coastal and offshore areas as part of UK Clean Seas Environment Monitoring Programme (CSEMP). Shellfish from around the Scottish coastline are monitored for contaminants; this is done primarily by SEPA, although MSS undertakes a limited biological effects monitoring programme. Biological effects that MSS have measured in mussels include: stress-on-stress, lysosomal membrane stability and genotoxicity (Comet assay). These are all ICES-recommended endpoints.
There are three layers showing the 2016 assessments from the MERMAN database for:
- Stress-on-stress which shows an organism-level indicator of general stress. Higher values equate to less stress.
- Comet Assay which shows cellular-level marker of exposure to genotoxic contaminants. Higher values equate to more damage / exposure to the contaminants.
- Lysosomal Membrane Stability by Neutral Red Retention which shows cellular-level indicator of general stress. Higher values equate to less stress.
Links and Resources
|Map Type||Click title for metadata and licence information||Date of data||View Map|
|NMPi||Biological Effects - Comet Assay 2016||2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31||Access this map on NMPi|
|NMPi||Biological Effects - Stress-on-stress 2016||2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31||Access this map on NMPi|
|NMPi||Biological Effects - Lysosomal Membrane Stability by Neutral Red Retention 2016||2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31||Access this map on NMPi|
|Type||Link Title||External Link|
|Data Portals||Contaminant assessment tool (using data from MERMAN)||www.bodc.ac.uk|