Metal Pollution: Evidences from Plants, Aquatic Invertebrates and Fish from Lake Skadar

Over recent decades, Lake Skadar and its basin have experienced varying states of pollution by heavy metals which originate mainly from the industrial waste and sewage waters in the Montenegrin and Albanian part of the lake, respectively. This paper aims to give an overview of our knowledge of heavy metals in macrophytes, aquatic invertebrates (molluscs) and fish from Lake Skadar and their potential as biomonitoring agents for environmental monitoring. Up to now, heavy metals have been investigated in five macrophytes, one mollusc (Viviparus mamillatus) and seven fish species from Lake Skadar. The obtained results showed that several macrophytes, snails and fish species can be successfully used to assess heavy metal pollution of Lake Skadar. Moreover, it has been shown that the heavy metal concentrations tend to be non-uniformly distributed among the different organs of macrophytes, snails and fishes from Lake Skadar indicating that different tissues can be used as biomonitoring agents of heavy metal contamination. In order to draw conclusions on the current degree of heavy metal pollution of the Lake Skadar ecosystem, an integrated approach which combines the analysis of heavy metals in the water, sediment and aquatic organisms is urgently required.