“…Juvenile mangroves can show the symptoms of Hg poisoning through loss of turgor, epinasty, leaf abscission, chlorosis and blackening of leaf and stem, if its concentration exceeds 500 mg Kg -1 in the soil (Walsh et al, 1979).When Hg replaces other metal ions in the photosynthetic machinery, there will be a decline in photosynthetic rate (Huang and Wang, 2010). Among plant tissues, bark can represent the sink of Hg through atmospheric deposition, surface absorption and binding to thiol groups and tannins inside the tissue (Serbula et al, 2012;Chiarantini et al, 2017;Chiarantini et al, 2016) As plants are at the base of the trophic chain, it is fundamental to consider Hg concentration (hereafter referred to as [Hg]) in plants, together with sediment and associated fauna. Among the mangrove macro-benthic invertebrates, molluscs are well recognized for their economic potential and relationship with vegetation/edaphic gradients (Bosire et al, 2008;Kon et al, 2010;Chen and Ye, 2011;Andreetta Fig.…”