Some features of using heart rate monitoring of freshwater bivalve mollusсs with a fiber-optical method for ecotoxicological research

Original fiber-optic noninvasive method for registration and analysis of cardiac rhythm in macrobenthal invertebrates with shells was elaborated in the 1990s. This method is based on infrared light remote registration of the heartbeat change. The aim of this study is to adapt this methodological approach for freshwater bivalves. We estimated heart rate in the three species of freshwater bivalves (Unio pictorum, Anodonta anatine and Dreissena polymorpha) collected from the Neva River estuary. The Spearman rank correlations found significant (p