Heavy Metal Accumulation of Pre-Adult Loggerhead Turtle and Green Turtle in Northern Cyprus

Sea turtles are considered pollution bioindicators due to their tendency to accumulate high metal levels in their tissues during their long lifetimes. In this context, we aimed to analyze the concentrations of 12 elements in liver, kidney, heart and muscle samples from green turtle ( Chelonia mydas ; n = 41) and loggerhead turtle ( Caretta caretta ; n = 14) found stranded in Northern Cyprus. With this study, we contribue to the limited number of studies about heavy metal accumulation in heart and presented the first data for Mg accumulation in heart, liver, muscle and kidney tissues of both species. We found that the tissues tend to accumulate different heavy metal levels in both species. Moreover, some elements in a same tissue (Al Kidney , As Heart , As Liver , Fe Muscle , Fe Kidney , Fe Heart , Mn Heart , Pb Heart , Zn Muscle and Zn Kidney) were significantly different between the green turtles and loggerhead turtle. The variations of heavy metals in turtle tissues may depend mainly on their diets and feeding habits where they exposure different level of heavy metals. We also found significant associations among elements within tissues, as well as between the same element across different tissues in both species, which may indicate differential accumulation of elements among organs due to physiological processes in turtle metabolism, bioaccumulation or excretion processes.