Mollusks and pollution. A review

Mollusks are a mega-diverse group, surpassed only by insects and nematodes in number of species, but not in diversity of life strategies and habitats; they can be found from deserts to polar zones and from the highest mountain to the deepest ocean trench. But it is at tropical coastal lagoons where they find their maximum diversity and function; there are first order consumers in both herbivore and detritus food chains, to second order carnivores and specialized parasites. The presence of specialized and opportunistic species expresses their different responses to environmental changes and pollution. The responses at individual and population levels of mollusks to pollution and pollutants are analyzed. Behavioral and physiologic adaptations for survival and their usefulness as pollution indicators are described; given the different responses at an individual or population levels. Such as the disappearance of stenobiotic species, allowing the more eurybiotic species to become dominant, or for their capacity to accumulate and increase pollutant concentrations, and the phenomenon of pollutant-induced changes in physiological and morphological characteristics.