Trace metal concentrations and contents in the tissues of the shore crab Carcinus maenas: effects of size and tissue hydration

Abstract.

Water content in the tissues, tissue proportions, and content and concentrations of copper, zinc, iron, cadmium, manganese, and cobalt were determined in male shore crabs Carcinus maenas of different sizes. Average wet to dry weight ratios in midgut gland, gills, muscle, exoskeleton, stomach, heart, testes, hypodermis, and haemolymph were 5.3, 9.5, 4.1, 1.5, 4.8, 6.1, 3.8, 4.7, and 13, respectively. The water content in the soft tissues generally increased with increasing size of the crabs (except in testes). Dry midgut gland, gills, muscle, exoskeleton, stomach, heart, testes, hypodermis, and haemolymph constituted 4, 0.9, 20, 68, 0.5, 0.12, 0.5, 0.7 and 5.3%, respectively, of the body dry weight. Dry midgut gland, gills, stomach, hypodermis, and haemolymph constituted a larger proportion of the body weight in small than in large crabs, whereas the opposite was the case for exoskeleton. Protein concentrations in the haemolymph decreased with size whereas haemolymph volume increased. Seventy percent of the copper body burden was located in the haemolymph. The majority of zinc (61%) occurred in muscle, whereas the midgut gland was the major site of cadmium storage (89%). The exoskeleton contained the major part of the body burden of iron (71%) and manganese (95%). Most of the cobalt body burden was located in the exoskeleton (45%) and haemolymph (44%). As tissue hydration and tissue proportions changed with size, tissue metal concentrations did not necessarily vary identically with size when expressed on a dry weight compared to a wet weight basis. Tissue potassium concentrations were negatively correlated with tissue water contents, indicating that water in tissues with a high wet to dry weight ratio was of extracellular origin. However, comparison of tissue and haemolymph copper levels showed that this extracellular water could not be pure haemolymph as tissue copper concentrations would have been higher than the values actually found.