Use of biochemical features of macrobenthic species as indicators of long-term oxygen deficiency

• Main Authors: Oeschger, R., Theede, Hans
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Institut für Meereskunde 1988
• Subjects: Arctica islandica
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/56213/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/56213/1/Oeschger_R_1988.pdf

An approach to monitoring the availability of oxygen to benthic marine invertebrates in the sediment is presented on the basis of biochemical analyses of metabolites of species from Kiel Bight. In Halicryptus spinulosus, Astarte borealis and Arctica islandica several metabolites of anaerobic metabolism were examined for their suitability as indicator substances of the oxygen availability. The amino acids aspartic acid and alanine seem to be useful only as indicators of short-term anaerobiosis, whereas glycogen and succinate together may indicate the overall duration of long-term anaerobiosis. The time course of glycogen depletion and of the increase of succinate concentrations in the tissues is correlated to the duration of experimentally induced anaerobiosis. Analyses of freshly captured Halicryptus spinulosus reflect the occurrence of long-term anaerobiosis at the sampling site in Kiel Bight during the end of summer and early autumn. Succinate concentrations in these worms and the depletion of glycogen came close to the values of specimens kept in the laboratory under anoxic conditions for 40 days (at 10°C).