Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Bull Environ Contam Toxicol (2017) 99:695–700 DOI 10.1007/s00128-017-2200-9 Heavy Metal Content in Chilean Fish Related to Habitat Use, Tissue Type and River of Origin S. V. Copaja 1  · C. A. Pérez 1  · C. Vega‑Retter 2,3  · D. Véliz 2,3   Received: 22 February 2017 / Accepted: 21 October 2017 / Published online: 28 October 2017 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2017 Keywords Silverside (Basilichthys microlepidotus) · Catfish (Trichomycterus areolatus) · Fish organs · Heavy metals The rapid development of human activities has resulted in increased pollution, which is a significant environmental hazard for invertebrates, fish and humans (Uluturhan and Kucukszgin 2007), especially heavy metals, which may have a natural or anthropogenic origin such as mining, waste- water, industrial discharges, agricultural runoff, air pollut- ants and deposition (Maceda-Veiga et al. 2012; Scanu et al. 2016). Most of these metals are essential for physiological functions (Taylor et al. 1985) and are considered as normal constituents of the fluvial or marine environment (Nieboer and Richardson 1980). However, when significant quanti- ties of heavy metals are accumulated and biomagnified in aquatic food chains, the result could have lethal or sub-lethal effects on the local fish populations (Xu et al. 2004). Heavy metals can be assimilated by fish through different path- ways: (i) from water passing through the gills, considered the most direct and important route (Evans 1987), (ii) from food, affecting the intestine and the metabolic organs (Her- menean et al. 2015), and finally (iii) from environmental contact with the skin (Amundsen et al. 1997). Further, stud- ies have shown that gills are the main means of entry for dis- solved substances from water, but the liver is most prone to accumulate heavy metals due to blood flow from gills (Cle- ments and Rees 1997). Thus, different organs accumulate different amounts of metals; in this context gills and liver are proposed as indicators of pollution (Saltes and Bailey 1984). As mentioned above, the metal concentration in freshwater systems depend on several factors, such as transport, veloc- ity of the river (Wu et al. 2005) and human activities in the basin (Farag et al. 1998), furthermore, metal concentration Abstract In this study, we analyze the concentration of ten metals in two freshwater fish—the benthic catfish Tricho- mycterus areolatus and the limnetic silverside Basilichthys microlepidotus—in order to detect possible accumulation differences related to fish habitat (benthic or pelagic), tissue type (gill, liver and muscle), and the river of origin (four different rivers) in central Chile. The MANOVA performed with all variables and metals, revealed independent effects of fish, tissue and river. In the case of the fish factor, Cu, Cr, Mo and Zn showed statistically higher concentrations in catfish compared with silverside for all tissues and in all rivers (p < 0.05). In the case of the tissue factor, Al, Cr, Fe and Mn had statistically higher concentrations in liver and gills than in muscle (p < 0.05). For the river effect, the analysis showed higher concentrations of Cr, Mn and Pb in the Cogoti river and the lower concentrations in the Reco- leta river. These results suggest that not all metals have the same pattern of accumulation; however, some metals tend to accumulate more in readily catfish, probably due to their benthic habit, and in liver and gill tissue, probably as a result of accumulation from food sources and respiration. * S. V. Copaja scopaja@uchile.cl 1 Departamento de Química, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile 2 Departamento de Ciencias Ecológicas, Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad (IEB), Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile 3 Nucleo Milenio de Ecología y Manejo Sustentable de Islas Oceánicas (ESMOI), Departamento de Biología Marina, Universidad Católica del Norte, Coquimbo, Chile