Effects of Chlorine on the Copepod Acartia tonsa

Abstract

There are published values of chlorine toxicity to freshwater copepods (Latimer, Brooks, and Beeton, 1975) but none for estuarine species. Roberts, Diaz, Bender, and Huggett (1975) found that 24 and 48 hour LC50's for Acartia tonsa were less than 0.05 mg/l total residual chlorine. Unpublished results are available for Acartia tonsa from the work of Gentile, Cardin, Johnson, and Sosnowski (1975) of.the Environmental Protection Agency, Capuzzo and Goldman (pers. commun.) at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and our work at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory. We found LC50's of 0.175, 0.062, 0.028 mg/l of chlorine produced oxidants for adult and immature copepodids (combined) of A. tonsa at 150C and salinities of 10.4 to 11.8%o.