Bioaccumulation of Heavy Metals in Freshwater Fish Species, Anzali, Iran Mohammad Ebrahimpour • Alireza Pourkhabbaz • Rahimeh Baramaki • Hadi Babaei • Mohammadreza Rezaei Received: 17 January 2011 / Accepted: 25 July 2011 / Published online: 21 August 2011 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 Abstract The main objectives of study were to monitor the metals concentrations, in freshwater fish species, Carassius gibelio and Esox lucius; and to identify any relationships between species and bioaccumulation of metals. The highest concentration of metals (cadmium, 1.96; copper, 24.2; zinc, 49.6; lead, 5.4; chromium, 4.4) between the fish species and tissues was in the liver of Esox lucius, while the lowest (cadmium,0.21; copper,7.2; zinc,19.4; lead,0.9; chromium, 0.6 lg/g) found in the muscle of Carassius gibelio. Results showed that the metal concentrations were in fishes in descending order of zinc [ copper [ lead [ chromium [ cadmium, similarly in the tissue liver [ kidney [ gill * intestine [ muscle. Keywords Carassius gibelio Á Concentration Á Esox lucius Á Tissues Á Trophic level Wetlands are an important facet in the improve of the quality of storm water runoff. Wetlands are increasingly being used in place of urban catchments for this purpose. Anzali Wetland, a coastal lagoon, is an invaluable wetland located in the north of Iran or south west of the Caspian Sea (Fig. 1). It covers an area of about 200 km 2 situated between 37°28 0 N and 49°25 0 E. This region has a high natural potential for agricultural and industrial developments as a result of relatively high rainfall and rich water resources. Anzali Wetland is one of the most important water bodies in northern Iran. This important wetland was designated as a Ramsar Site on 23 June 1975 (Khaleghizadeh and Behrouzi-Rad 2004), It is a good example of a natural wetland that supports an extreme diverse of wetland flora and fauna. Every year, this pre- cious water body hosts more than 150 species of migratory birds. Anzali wetland supports over 1% wintering birds of the regional Middle East. However, in recent years eutro- phication coupled with the high burden of industrial effluents and domestic sewage threaten this ecosystem on the verge of complete extinction (Charkhabi and Sakizadeh 2006). In aquatic ecosystems, heavy metals have received considerable attention due to their toxicity and accumula- tion in biota (Dural et al. 2006). Heavy metals from natural and anthropogenic sources are continually released into aquatic ecosystems, and they are a serious threat because of their toxicity, bioaccumulation, long persistence, and bio- magnification in the food chain (Erdog ˆrul and Ates 2006). Heavy metals, including both essential and non-essential elements, have a particular significance in ecotoxicology, since they are highly persistent and all have the potential to be toxic to living organisms (Storelli et al. 2005). Heavy metal discharges to aquatic environment are of great con- cern all over the world. Fish is considered as one of the main protein sources of food for human (Klavins et al. 2009). Water pollution from toxic metals can have sever negative impacts on fish. Pollution might resulted from many sources, e.g., acci- dental spillage of chemical wastes, atmospheric precipita- tion contaminated with air-borne pollutants, discharge of industrial or sewerage effluents (Klavins et al. 2009), agricultural drainage, domestic wastewater and gasoline M. Ebrahimpour Á A. Pourkhabbaz (&) Á R. Baramaki Á M. Rezaei Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran e-mail: Apourkhabbaz@yahoo.com H. Babaei National Research Institute of Inland Water and Aquaculture Studies, Anzali, Iran 123 Bull Environ Contam Toxicol (2011) 87:386–392 DOI 10.1007/s00128-011-0376-y