Physiological responses of the red rocky crab Cancer antennarius exposed to different concentrations of copper sulfate

Abstract

In this study we evaluated physiological, metabolic and hematological responses for the crab Cancer antennarius to different copper sulfate concentrations (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 mg L-1). The evaluated responses were: the median lethal dose, osmoregulatory capacity, oxygen consumption, ammonium excretion, atomic relation O:N, glucose, THC and hemocyanin concentration. The median lethal dose (LD50) we found was 1.6 mg L-1 of copper sulfate. The pattern followed on most of the observed responses was an increase directly proportional to the amount of copper sulfate concentration, except for osmoregulatory capacity where the osmoregulation pattern, usually isosmotic in normal conditions, was modified to hyposmotic. In the atomic relation O:N we observed a decrease in values due to changes in metabolic substrate as a result of stress caused by exposure to copper sulfate.