Availability of cadmium and zinc from sewage sludge to the flounder, Platichthys flesus, via a marine food chain

This paper examines the potential availability to a demersal fish of cadmium and zinc associated with digested sewage sludge, via a food chain as well as directly from the sludge, and the tissue distribution and possible excretion of any accumulated cadmium and zinc. Radioactive tracer techniques were used in order to follow the food chain transfer of the metals. Flounder (Platichthys flesus) accumulated cadmium both directly from sludge (delivered in newly ingested unassimilated gutfuls in the amphipods) and in assimilated form from the tissues of the amphipod crustacean Corophium volutator that had been feeding on a sludge–sediment mixture. Cadmium from both sources could be excreted by the fish. The concentration of cadmium within the whole fish increased as the input of cadmium in the diet increased. Zinc, similarly, is available to the flounder both directly from sludge and from zinc accumulated in C. volutator. Only a limited increase in net accumulation of zinc by the flounder was observed upon increased inputs of zinc through the diet, perhaps indicating some regulation of body zinc concentration by the flounder.