Trace Elements in Fish: Assessment of bioaccumulation and associated health risks.
Saima NaziD, Qudrat Ullah, Dalia FouadiD, Abdul QadeeriD, Maria Lateef, Muhammad Waqar HassaniD, Ahmad Manan Mustafa ChathaiD
Abstract
Industrial and agricultural water run-off are polluting the aquatic ecosystem by depositing different toxic trace elements (TTEs) in riverine system. It has become a global concern impacting not only the well-being of aquatic organisms but human health as well. Current study evaluated the impact of four TTEs (Cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), and nickel (Ni)) in three organs (liver, gills, and muscles) of five fish species viz, Rita rita, Sperata sarwari, Wallago attu, Mastacembelus armatus, and Cirrhinus mrigala collected from right and left banks of Punjnad headworks during winter, spring and summer. We investigated accumulation (mg/kg) of these TTEs in fish in addition to the human health risk assessment by estimating exposure hazards, hazardous index (THQ and TTHQ) and metal pollution index (MPI). The obtained results showed that W. attu accumulated significantly more TTEs (p Pb > Ni > Cu. All fish species had THQ 1 for Cd and Pb and TTHQ > 1 for all fish. MPI index showed moderate to high level of TTE contamination if all fish species. The study concluded that right bank has higher metal accumulation than left bank. However, fish consumption from both of the study site was not safe for human consumption.
02 /Specification & Classification
Click any tag to browse matching papers- Citations
- 25
- FWCI
- 9.70
- Field percentile
- top 1%
- Organism
- Assay
- Research Focus
- Approach
In-depth summary
Claude Opus 5.5 · xhigh effort · 8 Nov 2026 · from the full text of version 1 (13 Sept 2024) · CC BY 4.0
Across five fish species at Pakistan's Punjnad headworks, Wallago attu accumulated most Cd, Cu, Pb and Ni, and modelled total hazard quotients exceeded 1 for every species.
Industrial and agricultural runoff deposits toxic trace elements in rivers, and fish that absorb them can pass them to human consumers. The authors state that no earlier work had examined these elements at the two banks of Pakistan's Punjnad headworks, where Punjab's five rivers merge, although their discussion cites earlier studies of fish metals at Punjnad.
Key results
ShownWallago attu generally accumulated the most Cd, Cu, Pb and Ni and Cirrhinus mrigala the least. In winter and spring, liver held the highest loads, then gills, then muscle.
Highest values reported, from winter W. attu liver: Pb 41.61 (left bank, LB) and 46.03±10.56 (right bank, RB); Ni 8.94±2.21 (LB) and 11.68±1.23 (RB) mg/kg. Lowest, from winter C. mrigala muscle: Pb 8.29±1.65 (LB) and 11.87±1.90 (RB). The usual order was W. attu > M. armatus > S. sarwari > R. rita > C. mrigala; M. armatus led for winter RB Cu and for RB Pb in spring and summer. · Abstract; 3.1 Accumulation of toxic trace elements (TTEs)…
SuggestedModelled intake from the muscle of all five species gives a total target hazard quotient (TTHQ, the sum of the per-metal THQs) above 1, the authors' threshold for possible toxic effects. Cd contributes most, and juvenile regular consumers are most at risk.
TTHQ: W. attu 59.56, M. armatus 55.33, S. sarwari 43.3, R. rita 40.41, C. mrigala 34.54. Highest THQ: Cd 42.826 (M. armatus, juvenile regular consumers); lowest: Cu 0.190 (R. rita, mature seasonal consumers). THQ order Cd > Pb > Ni > Cu. Exposure order: juvenile regular > mature regular > juvenile seasonal > mature seasonal. Metal pollution index runs from 11.88 (M. armatus) to 7.1 (C. mrigala). · Abstract; 2.4.2 Target hazardous quotients estimation; 2.4.3 Total Target hazardous quotient estimation; 3.2 Human Health Risk Assessment of TTEs
ShownRight-bank fish generally carried more of all four metals than left-bank fish, with exceptions. Metal profiles were highly correlated across species, with slightly higher correlations on the right bank in some cases, notably for Cd and Cu.
Summer C. mrigala liver Pb was 25.52±2.15 (LB) vs 37.17±3.16 (RB) mg/kg; spring M. armatus liver Pb was 38.22±3.10 vs 46.01±2.19. Exceptions include summer Cu and Ni in all three W. attu organs. Correlations between species were mostly above 0.90. The Cd correlation for S. sarwari vs C. mrigala was 0.846 (LB) vs 0.986 (RB); the Ni correlation for W. attu vs S. sarwari was 0.978 (LB). · Abstract; 3.1 Accumulation of toxic trace elements (TTEs)…
ShownAccumulation generally rose from winter to summer at both banks, with spring usually intermediate. The authors attribute this to water temperature, but no temperature data are reported.
W. attu liver Cd was 10.12±2.18 (LB) and 15.25±2.47 (RB) in winter, 9.37±0.48 and 13.92±0.87 in spring, and 23.32±0.56 and 26.42±0.97 in summer (mg/kg). W. attu liver Ni at the LB went from 8.94±2.21 (winter) to 13.33±0.99 (spring) to 22.05±0.76 (summer). The abstract reports summer accumulation as significantly higher than in the other seasons (printed as p < 0.00). · Abstract; 3.1 Accumulation of toxic trace elements (TTEs)…
ShownPb was the dominant contaminant. It had the highest concentrations of the four metals and loaded on the first principal component, which captured most of the variance.
Pb reached 53.14±2.35 mg/kg in M. armatus (RB, summer) and 47.76±1.44 in W. attu liver (LB, summer). Principal component analysis: PC1 eigenvalue 42.85, 95.75% of variance, Pb loading 0.79; PC2 eigenvalue 1.57, 3.51%, Cd loading 0.85. Hierarchical clustering (Ward linkage, Euclidean distance) put Pb from both banks in a group of its own. · 3.1 Accumulation of toxic trace elements (TTEs)…
Methods, data and reproducibility
Five fish species were netted monthly from November 2021 to July 2022 (grouped into winter, spring and summer) at both banks of Punjnad headworks. Liver, gills and muscle were digested in HNO3:HClO4 (3:1), and Cd, Cu, Pb and Ni were measured by flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Muscle values then fed hazard quotient and metal pollution index calculations for four consumer groups.
- Liver, gills and muscle of Wallago attu sampled monthly (November 2021 to July 2022) at the left and right banks of Punjnad headworks, Uch Sharif, Punjab, Pakistan · Wallago attu (freshwater catfish)
- Liver, gills and muscle of Rita rita from the same two banks and three seasons · Rita rita (freshwater catfish, Bagridae)
- Liver, gills and muscle of Sperata sarwari from the same two banks and three seasons · Sperata sarwari (Indus catfish)
- Liver, gills and muscle of Mastacembelus armatus from the same two banks and three seasons · Mastacembelus armatus (spiny eel)
- Liver, gills and muscle of Cirrhinus mrigala from the same two banks and three seasons · Cirrhinus mrigala (mrigal)
- Methods & tools
- Analytik Jena NovAA 400 P atomic absorption spectrophotometer (air-acetylene flame), HNO3/HClO4 (3:1) acid digestion (Clesceri, Eaton method), CRM IAEA 407 certified reference material, IBM SPSS Statistics 20 (one-way ANOVA, Duncan multiple range test), Minitab 19.1.1 (Pearson correlation), PAST 4.03 (PCA, hierarchical cluster analysis), USEPA health risk assessment guidelines (THQ)
- Reagents & environment
- IBM SPSS Statistics version 20; Minitab 19.1.1; PAST 4.03; Analytik Jena NovAA 400 P AAS, with instrument settings and detection limits in Table 1; recoveries of 95% to 101% against blanks and standards.
- Reproducibility gaps
- The text has no code or data availability statement. Per-fish measurements and sample counts are not given: concentrations appear only as mean ± S.E. in Tables 3 to 5, with correlations (Table 6), risk indices (Table 7) and average body sizes (Table S1).
Limitations (2)
- The number of fish per species, bank and season is never stated. Sampling covers one site over a single November 2021 to July 2022 cycle, and no water, sediment or temperature data are reported, so bank and seasonal differences cannot be tied to measured exposure. · noted in this summary
- The text is internally inconsistent. The study-area methods name chromium instead of cadmium. The winter W. attu liver Pb value has SE 4.99 in one place and 14.99 in another, yet its bank difference (41.61 vs 46.03 mg/kg) is called highly significant. The abstract prints 'p < 0.00' and 'THQ 1'. · noted in this summary
Who should read:Read this if you monitor metal contamination of freshwater fisheries in South Asia and want Cd, Cu, Pb and Ni concentrations, broken down by species, organ, season and bank, plus hazard quotients for fish from Punjnad headworks.
Reproducibility ledger
Nobody has reported trying to reproduce this paper yet. Did you replicate an experiment or run the code? Your report saves the next lab a week.
Sign in to file a reproducibility report.
Related papers
- Metal contamination and oxidative stress biomarkers in estuarine fish following a mine tailing disaster
F. A. Gabriel, R. A. Hauser-Davis, … A. F. Bernardino·bioRxiv·Jun 29, 2020
- Bioaccumulation of heavy metals in commercially important fish species from the tropical river estuary suggests higher potential child health risk than adults
A. S. S. Ahmed, S. Sultana, … M. S. I. Sarker·bioRxiv·Jun 26, 2019
- Toxicity and bioaccumulation of Cadmium, Copper and Zinc in a direct comparison at equitoxic concentrations in common carp (Cyprinus carpio) juveniles.
V. Delahaut, B. Raskovic, … G. De Boeck·bioRxiv·Jul 28, 2019
- Impacts of the Samarco tailing dam collapse on metals and arsenic concentration in freshwater fish muscle from Doce River, southeastern Brazil
F. F. Ferreira, M. B. Freitas, … C. F. SPERBER·bioRxiv·May 9, 2020
- Mining and e-waste recycling influence the spatial distribution of technology-critical elements, but not rare earth elements, in boreal lakes
M. Gabriele, Maikel Rosabal, … Guillaume Grosbois·The Science of The Total EnvironmentPeer-reviewed·Nov 20, 2025
- Mercury contamination of an introduced generalist fish of intermediate trophic level
D. P. Gedig, M. Hauger, … K. M. Jeffries·bioRxiv·Dec 1, 2022