Metal Metabolism in Aquatic Environments

This text aims to provide an insight into how diverse forms of life interact with and are influenced by metals and how they vary in their ability to bioaccumulate, utilize, store, transform, detoxify and redistribute metals in the aquatic environment. Emphasis has been placed on those elements and species that are of major concern in the mid-to-late-1990s and that have been well characterized. The contents of this book serve to illustrate the variability that has been achieved through evolutionary adaptation to the prescence of both essential and non-essential elements, and it contains diagnostic features and predictive approaches. The authors seek to improve understanding of the mechanisms that dictate contaminant metal behaviour and therefore assist those charged with the management of our environment in the selection and application of improved monitoring and assessment schemes.