Abstract

Fish otolith is a good recorder of water environment in which the fish lived. In order to identify the elements in otolith that are sensitive to environment and their enrichment rules, lab-culture experiments of carps were carried out. Pb, Hg and Cr were added separately into tanks in which the carps lived, and the tanks were named as Pb tank, Hg tank and Cr tank, respectively. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) was used for measuring the concentrations of Pb, Hg and Cr in otolith and water. ICP-MS results of otoliths showed that the average, median, quartile and extreme values of Pb, Cr concentrations in otoliths obtained from Pb and Cr tanks are comparably higher than those obtained from other tanks. It showed that Pb and Cr in carp otoliths could respond to environment change as environment response sensitive elements can also be suitable for monitoring water pollution.

Key words: Otolith, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS), heavy metal elements.