Deepulal, P M; Dr.Sujatha, C H(Cochin University Of Science And Technology, January , 2013)
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Abstract:
The pollutants discharged into the estuaries are originate from two
main sources-industrial and sewage. The former may be toxic which
includes heavy metals, residues from antifouling paint particles and
pesticides, while large discharges of sewage will contain pathogenic microorganisms.
The contamination is enough to destroy the amenities of the
waterfront, and the toxic substances may completely destroy the marine life
and damage to birds, fishes and other marine organisms. Antifouling
biocides are a type of chemical used in marine structure to prevent
biofouling. These antifouling biocides gradually leach from the ships and
other marine structures into water and finally settled in sediments. Once a
saturation adsorption is reached they desorbed into overlying water and
causes threat to marine organisms. Previous reports explained the imposex
and shell thickening in bivalves owing to the effect of biocides. So bivalves are used as indicator organisms to understand the status of pollution. The
nervous system is one of the best body part to understand the effect of
toxicant. Acetylcholine esterase enzyme which is the main neurotransmitter
in nervous was used to understand the effect of pollutants. Present study
uses Acetylcholine esterase enzyme as pollution monitoring indicator
Description:
Department of Chemical Oceanography
School of Marine Sciences
Cochin University of Science and Technology