Effects of mercury on the prosobranch mollusc Crepidula fornicata: Acute lethal toxicity and effects on growth and reproduction of chronic exposure |
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Authors: | J E Thain |
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Institution: | Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Directorate of Fisheries Research, Fisheries Laboratory, Remembrance Avenue, Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex, CMO 8HA, Great Britain |
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Abstract: | Exposure to a mercury-equilibrated algal suspension containing 0·25, 0·42 and 1 μg Hg litre−1 as mercuric chloride in solution reduced the growth and condition of pairs of adults of the slipper limpet Crepidula fornicata in a 16-week period. Reproduction rates and larval survival to settlement were also reduced over the first three spawnings when the exposed pairs reached sexual maturity. The adult and larval 96-h LC50s were 330 and 60 μg Hg litre−1, respectively, as mercuric chloride in solution, indicating that a ‘safety factor’ of 10−1 needs to be applied to adult data to protect the most sensitive stage in the life cycle. However, the chronic exposure of the maturing adults showed that levels of inorganic mercury below the ‘safe’ concentration derived from the adult 96 h LC50 affected growth and reproductive success. |
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