The salinity tolerance of three species of Acartia was investigated in the laboratory by recording the survival of female copepods at various salinities. The salinity tolerance of A. tonsa, A. discaudata, and A. bifilosa captured during the autumn, winter, and spring, respectively, depended on the temperature. Thermal prehistory of copepods affected their survival in diluted seawater, all species being most tolerant when the experimental and environmental temperatures were close and least tolerant when the experimental and field temperatures differed markedly. The following order of salinity tolerance was established: A. tonsa > A. bifilosa > A. discaudata.
Reinvestigation of the temperatures at which copepods had shown poorest survival in diluted seawater demonstrated that temperature acclimation increased salinity tolerance. The results imply that cooling of the environment might not necessarily lower the tolerance of the autumn, warmwater species, A. tonsa, provided that the change was gradual and that slow warming might not cause a decline in the tolerance of the spring, cold‐water species, A. bifilosa. Salinity acclimation increased the salinity tolerance of A. bifilosa. The recovery of A. bifilosa in full‐strength seawater after short exposure to low salinities depended on the length of exposure.
Under estuarine conditions, the restriction of different species of zooplankton to certain ranges of salinity may be partly determined by behavioural patterns which tend to maintain each species in a suitable environment. The presence of a salinity discontinuity layer (i.e. a boundary between two types of water of varying salinity) is thought to restrict upward or downward movements of certain animals (Henschel, 1939;Hansen, 1951; Carrriker, 1951;Mankowski, 1951) and in stratified estuaries it is probable that discontinuity layers will influence the dispersal of zooplankton by modifying the position of individuals relative to prevailing water currents. There is an obvious need to supplement existing field records by laboratory experiments, but although the reactions of small copepods have been investigated in the laboratory by several workers, it would appear that only Loeb (1893), Rose (1925), Lukjanova (1938 and Harder (1952aHarder ( , b, 1954Harder ( , 1957a have conducted work on the behaviour of copepods in diluted sea water. The experiments described in this paper were designed to simulate the type of stratification likely to occur in estuaries such as Southampton Water where fresh water flows out over denser sea water, vertical mixing being incomplete. By recording the vertical distribution of planktonic crustaceans in stratified water and by observing the effects of specific dilutions on swimming activity, it was hoped that some indication of the way in which animals react to hydrographic events occurring in the field might be obtained.
MATERIALS AND METHODSPlankton was collected from Southampton Water in the main channel parallel to the New Docks at Marchwood and in the vicinity of Hook Buoy at Calshot. While the salinity of sea water at the more seaward station Calshot varies between approximately 34 and 31%0' considerable reduction in salinity occurs at Marchwood where fresh water flows out from the River Test. Net hauls of 10 min duration were always taken during the 2 h period which separates
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