Mortality rates of two polychaetes in situ and in vitro under temperature and pollution stress

A knowledge of the natural population fluctuations of two polychaetes Scolelepis fuliginosa and Capitella capitata during a yearly cycle, and a study of the mortality of both species submitted in vitro to the combined action of an increase in temperature and detergents showed that the mortality rate in situ and in vitro was identical for the two species when exposed to a similar combination of deleterious factors.