Baseline arsenic levels in marine and terrestrial resources from a pristine environment: Isabel Island, Solomon Islands

Grinham, Alistair; Kvennefors, Charlotte; Fisher, Paul L.; Gibbes, Badin; Albert, Simon

Baseline arsenic levels in marine and terrestrial resources from a pristine environment: Isabel Island, Solomon Islands

2014

Grinham, Alistair | Kvennefors, Charlotte | Fisher, Paul L. | Gibbes, Badin | Albert, Simon

Baseline records are crucial in understanding how chemicals of concern impact on the receiving environment. We analysed terrestrial and marine resources from a pristine site on Isabel Island, Solomon Islands, to provide environmental baseline levels for total arsenic and arsenic species composition for commonly consumed marine resources. Our data show that levels of the more toxic inorganic arsenic species were very low or below detectable limits, with the exception of the seaweed Sargassum sp. that contained pentavalent inorganic arsenic levels of 4.63μgg−1. Total arsenic concentrations in the majority of marine and terrestrial samples collected were below 2μgg−1. The less toxic arsenobetaine was the predominant arsenic species present in all marine fauna samples analysed. This work highlights the need for arsenic speciation analysis to accurately assess potential toxicity of marine resources and provides a crucial baseline to assess the impact of future development within this region.

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