Acute response versus reproductive performance in five strains of brine shrimp exposed to copper sulphate

Five geographically and genetically diverse strains of the brine shrimp, Artemia salina, were tested for response to copper sulphate. Mean survival times (MST) were determined for each strain following continuous exposure to concentrations of 10^?1, 1, 10¹, 10², 10³, 10⁴ and 10⁵ ppm CuSO₄. In addition, lifetime reproductive performance parameters were evaluated for 15 females from each strain after 24 h exposure to 0·067 × 10^?9 CuSO₄.Two-factorial ANOVA revealed that treated females produced fewer offspring per brood and fewer broods per female, resulting in an overall decline in the mean number of offspring per day per female over the reproductive span. When the standard 24 h MST results are compared with the 24 h dose level of CuSO₄ found to impair reproductive performance, the latter was from 24,000 to 156,000 times more sensitive, depending upon strain.