Aquatic biota copper

No documented report of fatal copper deficiency is available for any species of aquatic organism, and no correlation is evident in aquatic biota for the presumed nutritional copper requirements of a species and its sensitivity to dissolved copper (Neff and Anderson 1977). Extremely low copper concentrations (5.5 and 6.7 mg/kg DW) in whole bodies of 2 of 17 species of crustaceans from the Antarctic Ocean support the hypothesis that certain Antarctic species may show copper deficiencies or reduced metal requirements (Petri and Zauke 1993). 

Hoare, K., J. Davenport, and A.R. Beaumont. 1995b. Effects of exposure and previous exposure to copper on growth of veliger larvae and survivorship of Mytilus edulis juveniles. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 120 163-168. Hodson, P.V., U. Borgmann, and H. Shear. 1979. Toxicity of copper to aquatic biota. Pages 307-372 in J.O. 

Florence, T.M. (1977) Trace metal species in fresh waters. Water Res., 11, 681-687. Florence, T.M. (1982) Development of physicochemical speciation procedures to investigate the toxicity of copper, lead, cadmium and zinc towards aquatic biota. Anal. Chim. Acta, 141, 73-94. 

Anthropogenic sources of copper in the aquatic environment include mining, metal plating, and domestic and industrial wastes (Manahan, 1991). Copper is extremely toxic to aquatic biota. Algae are especially sensitive to copper, with both marine and freshwater species being adversely impacted at concentrations as low as 1-5 mg IT1... 

Copper, chromium, and arsenic may be leached from wooden structures such as wharves preserved by chromated copper arsenate (CCA). CCA is toxic to aquatic biota in laboratory tests. In the field the effects are limited to a few meters in the vicinity of the preserved structures [91]. 

Lethal and sublethal effects of copper compounds are documented for selected species of aquatic biota, including algae, macrophytes, cnidarians, mollusks, arthropods, annelids, and fishes. 

Many aquatic organisms exhibit an ability to concentrate a variety of trace elements and this ability has been identified as a function of the tendency of the elements to be complexed by ligands (159). The alkaline earth metals are poorly com-plexed in relation to the transition metals, copper, nickel, cobalt, zinc and manganese. The actinides should be regarded as members of an intermediate group. It has been suggested by Martin (160) that at least five mechanisms may regulate the uptake of metals by marine biota. These are... 

Eor example, 4-day LC50 for exposed orbatid mites were reported as 181 mg Cu kg in poor organic soil (3.2% carbon) and 2760 mg Cu kg in peat soil (42.6% carbon) (Streit 1984). Therefore, it is not possible to provide some general value for copper toxicity to the soil biota, but the decision would vary from species to species, and also depend upon the local environmental circumstances. Similarly, although the aquatic environment is less permissive than the terrestrial environment in copper concentration variability, concentrations... 

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