ICBs results

The first immediate results were mortality.
In the control, all mussels survived.
In the lowest concentration, 1 mussel died. However, this mussel died before the cigarette butts were added.
In the medium concentration, 2 mussels died, of which 1 had died before the cigarette butts were added.
In the highest concentration, 22 mussels died. Most of these had died during the last few days of the experiment.

In almost all cases, the t0 has a higher concentration of the metals than any of the treatments. This is possibly due to the occurrence of these metals in the mussel farm where the mussels were collected. For the graphs, I will compare between treatment groups and not with the t0 values.

For some trace metals, there seems to be a slight difference between (some) groups. However, all the values that were found for the metals were found to be within the normal values, with exception of the t0 values. This means that the cigarette most likely did not have an effect on the bioaccumulation of trace metals in the mussels.

For both ABAP and ascorbic acid, there does not really seem to be a difference between the different concentrations of cigarette butts. There are some small variations, but the error bars seem to overlap. This could depend on the fact that this assay considers all the antioxidants present in tissue. Maybe some of them could be activated and some inhibited by different substances in cigarette butts, which are leached into the water. Evaluation of singular antioxidant enzymes could reveal more information about this biological response.

The TGSH seems to be higher for the control than for the exposure conditions. This is according to expectations, seeing as toxins can lower concentrations, since some cellular components can have been damaged or will be damaged quicker when toxins are presents.

For hemolymph, AChE seems to be higher for 1 CB/L than all other conditions.
For gills, AChE seems to be a bit lower in both of the highest concentrations.