Effect of Different Pollutants on Ecologically Important Polychaete Worms

摘要

The procedures for culturing marine polychaetous annelids from egg to egg under laboratory conditions were described. A manual was prepared detailing the procedures used in culturing 12 species of polychaetes. The effects of heavy metals and the water soluble fractions of petroleum hydrocarbons were measured over 96 hours, 28 days, and with some of the toxicants, over a complete reproductive cycle for some of these species of polychaetes. Mercury and copper were the most toxic of the six metals tested and cadmium was the least toxic. The 28-day LC50 was less than the 96-hour value in most experiments.