Statistical Study of Trace Elemental Concentrations in Major Types of Organisms from Typical Chinese Coastal Waters

Frequency distribution characteristics of trace elements Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Sr and Ba are studied for the marine organisms collected from typical Chinese coastal waters and compared with those of major elements Ca and Mg. Nearly all the distributions for trace elements in macroalgae, benthic molluscs, crustaceans, cephalopods and different tissues of fish ( muscle, liver and bone ) are found to show some degree of positive skewness, indicating a relatively large number of marine organisms with low concentrations for a particular element and only a few organisms with disproportionately high concentrations. Their distribution types are generally logarithmic normal distribution or nearly logarithmic normal distribution. Distribution of Ca is similar to that of trace elements, while Mg shows normal distribution. Average elemental concentrations of major types of organisms are calculated based on their frequency distributions.