As intertidal marine gastropods, limpets are able to bioaccumulate trace metals and other inorganic elements from seawater. In polluted environments, they can act as biomagnifiers, concentrating pollutants in their tissues to levels higher than those in their surroundings [1]. Screening limpet tissues for environmental contaminants is essential, because limpets can be sensitive indicators of the health of marine ecosystems, particularly for heavy metal concentrations in seawater. Furthermore, as limpets are consumed as food in many regions, monitoring levels of toxic contaminants is crucial for public health and food safety [2]. Understanding which organs are involved in metal uptake and sequestration provides insight into their metabolic detoxification pathways and may guide future research into these mechanisms.

Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) has been extensively used for bioimaging of elemental contaminants in tissue samples [3]. This study is the first to apply LA-ICP-TOF-MS to Antarctic molluscs, specifically to thin sections of Nacella concinna, an Antarctic species, and Patella vulgata from the Atlantic coast of Portugal. N. concinna is mainly exposed to volcanic pollution in the Antarctic region, while P. vulgata often inhabits seawater close to urban areas exposed to anthropogenic pollution [1,4]. The aim of this study was to develop an analytical method to quantify the spatial distribution of essential trace elements and elemental contaminants, such as zinc, selenium, lead, silver and cadmium among others. The method was developed using a time-of-flight (TOF) mass analyser, which allowed simultaneous monitoring of all targeted elements, significantly enhancing the method's capacity for comprehensive analysis in a single measurement run.

We observed significant differences in the spatial distribution of elements in key tissues, including the digestive gland, muscular foot and gill of two limpet species. An example of the obtained cross sections can be seen in Figure 1 in the attached document, which illustrates the distribution of four of the target elements within the digestive gland of N. Concinna.

The established LA-ICP-TOF-MS method was successfully applied for elemental mapping of different limpet tissue sections. This research paves the way for future studies on heavy metal detoxification pathways and the environmental contaminant screening in marine ecosystems.

References
[1] E. Lozano-Bilbao et al. ESPR, 2021, 28, 42999-43006.
[2] I. Fernandes et al. Eur. Food Res. Technol., 2019, 245, 895-905.
[3] D. Clases et al. Anal. Bioanal. Chem, 2022, 414, 7337-7361.
[4] E. Sin et al. J. Mar. Sci. Eng., 2020, 8, 822.