Abstract
Accumulation of the bi-cyclic aromatic hydrocarbon 14C-1-naphthalene in adult female Calanus helgolandicus Claus and adult female Eurytemora affinis Poppe in sea water concentrations of hydrocarbon ranging from 0.2 to 992 μg/l was studied during exposure periods of up to 15 days as part of an investigation of the possible effects on marine zooplankton of persistent exposure to low levels of petroleum hydrocarbons. With both species the body levels of radioactivity increased rapidly during the first few days of the exposure period, but after exposure for 7 to 8 days to sea water containing 50 μg hydrocarbon/l an equilibrium condition was approached; in some experiments where E. affinis was exposed to 1.0 and 10 μg hydrocarbon/l for 15 days there was no further increase in body levels of radioactivity after 7 to 8 days. Using a low concentration of hydrocarbon (1 μg/l), the quantity of radioactivity accumulated after 10 days was found to be nearly fifty times greater in the smaller species, E. affinis, than in C. helgolandicus, when expressed in terms of body weight. After they had been exposed to the hydrocarbon for several days the copepods contained a considerable proportion of radioactivity that was no longer identifiable as naphthalene and was presumably present as metabolites. Radioactivity accumulated in the copepods after several days was rapidly lost after they were transferred to uncontaminated sea water: e.g. C. helgolandicus lost nearly 90% of its body level of radioactivity in 24 h. Thereafter the rate of loss was greatly reduced, and 5% of the original body level of radioactivity still remained in the copepods at the end of 11 days. Experiments on the breakdown of naphthalene added at low concentrations to sea water samples containing natural microbial populations indicated degradation rates of 0.1 to 0.2 μg/l/24 h in oceanic water, and 2.6 μg/l/24 h in inshore water samples. The results are discussed in terms of the possible transfer of hydrocarbon to a higher trophic level in areas subjected to constant low-level inputs of petroleum hydrocarbons.
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Communicated by J.H.S. Blaxter, Oban
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Harris, R.P., Berdugo, V., O'Hara, S.C.M. et al. Accumulation of 14C-1-naphthalene by an oceanic and an estuarine copepod during long-term exposure to low-level concentrations. Mar. Biol. 42, 187–195 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00397743
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00397743