Alternate Title
Ordination of Trace Metals in Syacium papillosum (Dusky Flounder) from the Eastern Gulf of Mexico
Abstract
Variations in the metal contents (Ba, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, V, and Zn) in the skeletal flesh of the demersal fish Syacium papillosum from 12 stations on the relatively unpolluted Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida continental margin are investigated with the aid of a-mode ordination techniques. Gradient analysis on the station-season ordination shows that Ba, Cu, and Ni explain most of the normal variation. Of these metals only Cu and Ni increased from summer to winter; this increase may be related to decreased metabolism. The decrease of Ba (and Cd) in winter may be diet controlled. Based on ordination synthetic indices, nonparametric statistical testing indicates that the winter trace metal concentrations are multivariately distinct from those of the fall and summer sampling suites; the latter are not statistically distinguishable. The trace metal concentrations measured in the demersal fish specimens are weakly correlated (positive) with the metal concentrations measured in the weak acid digest of the study area bottom sediments.
DOI Link
Recommended Citation
Feldhausen, P. H. and D. Johnson.
1983.
Ordination of Trace Metals in Syacium papillosum (Dusky Flounder) from the Eastern Gulf of Mexico.
Northeast Gulf Science
6
(1).
Retrieved from https://aquila.usm.edu/goms/vol6/iss1/2