Accumulation and detoxification of copper and zinc by the decapod crustacean Palaemonetes varians from diets of field-contaminated polychaetes Nereis diversicolor

- Field-contaminated prey provides a source of toxic metals to a predator.
- A predator can take up ecotoxicologically significant amounts of copper from prey.
- Dietary copper was taken up and detoxified by metallothionein-like proteins.
- Some dietary copper accumulated was not detoxified and potentially toxic.

In an investigation of the trophic transfer of ecotoxicologically significant amounts of trace metals from prey to predator, Palaemonetes varians were fed with diets of Nereis diversicolor from two metal-contaminated estuaries, the Tavy and Restronguet Creek in SW England, and a control estuary, the Blackwater in SE England. The decapods accumulated increased concentrations of copper (but not zinc) from the metal-contaminated worms above an initial apparently regulated body copper concentration, in response to a high dietary copper input over a period up to 30 days. High dietary challenges of copper caused the induction of MTLP (metallothionein-like proteins) in the hepatopancreas of the feeding decapods as a detoxification response, although the non-detoxified subcellular component of hepatopancreas accumulated copper also increased over time, probably in association with sublethal toxic effects.