SEX- AND MATURITY-RELATED HEAVY METAL ACCUMULATIONS IN THE ANTARCTIC KRILL

• Main Authors: Euphausia Superba, Ryo Tatsukawa
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; Scotia Sea; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctic Krill
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.612.2505; http://polaris.nipr.ac.jp/~penguin/polarbiosci/issues/pdf/1990-Yamamoto.pdf

Abstract: Concentrations of heavy metals and their chemical forms were analyzed in the Antarctic krill (Euphausia superha) collected from the Scotia Sea in December, 1987, and the results were discussed in relation to sex and maturity stages. The whole body metal concentrations were in the order of Zn=Cu>Fe> Mn>Ni>Cd. The values of Fe, Mn and Zn were higher in females than in males. The values of Cu, Fe, Ni and Cd in adult females were highest in stage 11IA. Also, the values for Cu was higher in juveniles than in adults. Concentrations of the metals were generally higher in cephalothorax than in abdomen. In particular, a majority of Cu burden in the cephalothorax existed as Cu-binding proteins, which were likely to be mainly hemocyanin and metallothio-nein. We speculate that changes in amounts of Cu-binding proteins by physio-logical conditions might be important causes for the variations of Cu concentration between sexes and between maturity stages of the Antarctic krill. 1.