Characteristic property of blue mussel Mytilus edulis L. adaptation to pollutants

In our work, we analyzed blue mussels’ heart rate in response to exposure of various oil product and such heavy metals as Cd and Cu. A sharp rise in HR was observed almost in all experimental groups. Strong fluctuations of cardiac activity were noted under all concentrations. Accelerated HR points to the increased oxygen consumption and, consequently, to the elevated rate of basic metabolism. These changes can be associated with the removal of pollutants from tissues or their oxidation. It is now common knowledge that any adaptation process has oscillatory nature due to inertia of adaptation mechanisms. It seems that in our experiment the oscillatory nature of HR, triggered by pollutants, indicates progressing acclimatization of mussels to external exposure. The main argument for this hypothesis is that the same effect was observed in all experimental groups.