Effects of short- and long-term exposures to copper on lethal and reproductive endpoints of the harpacticoid copepod Tigriopus fulvus

- Copper acute, sub-chronic and chronic toxicity on Tigriopus fulvus were assessed.
- Copper had effect on normal larval development of copepods.
- Copper significantly impacted reproductive traits of T. fulvus.
- The endpoints tested have a predictive capacity for population level alteration.

The long-term exposure provides a realistic measurement of the effects of toxicants on aquatic organisms.The harpacticoid copepod Tigriopus fulvus has a wide geographical distribution and is considered as an ideal model organism for ecotoxicological studies for its good sensitivity to different toxicants.In this study, acute, sub-chronic and chronic toxicity tests based on lethal and reproductive responses of Tigriopus fulvus to copper were performed. The number of moults during larval development was chosen as an endpoint for sub-chronic test. Sex ratio, inhibitory effect on larval development, hatching time, fecundity, brood number, nauplii/brood, total newborn production, etc, were calculated in the chronic test (28 d). Lethal effect of copper to nauplii showed the LC50-48 h of 310 ± 72 µgCu/L (mean ± sd). It was observed a significant inhibition of larval development at sublethal copper concentrations, after 4 and 7 d. After 4 d, the EC50 value obtained for the endpoint in “moult naupliar reduction” was of 55.8 ± 2.5 µgCu/L (mean ± sd). The EC50 for the inhibition of naupliar development into copepodite stage, was of 21.7 ± 4.4 µgCu/L (mean ± sd), after 7 days. Among the different traits tested, copper did not affect sex ratio and growth, while fecundity and total nauplii production were the most sensitive endpoints. The reproductive endpoints offer the advantage of being detectable at very low pollutant concentrations.

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