A Review on the Effects of Heavy Metals on Aquatic Animals

Abstract

The development of industries and the uncontrolled increase of population, the development of agricultural areas and the use of fertilizers and pesticides have caused industrial and municipal wastewaters as well as agricultural effluents with heavy metals to enter water ecosystems. After entering aquatic ecosystems, heavy metals accumulate in aquatic tissues and eventually enter the food chain. Research on heavy metal pollution in aquatic ecosystems is important from a public health perspective, maintaining the balance of those ecosystems and preventing biodegradation due to the adverse effects of pollutants. So, researchers have focused on determining the level of pollution of various water sources, how metals are absorbed by aquatic animals, bioaccumulation of heavy metals in various aquatic tissues and the possibility of using aquatic animals as biological indicators based on pollutant monitoring. Due to the importance of this issue, the present study has investigated the effect of heavy metals on fish.