Life history characteristics of the freshwater ostracod Cyprinotus incongruens and their application to toxicity testing

Abstract

: The biology of ostracod crustaceans suggests that this group could be a useful model for sediment toxicity testing. We examined life history characteristics of the freshwater ostracod Cyprinotus incongruens in the laboratory (25°C), then used length after 10 days as a response variable in a sediment toxicity test. Life history results indicated that both fecundity (0-64 total eggs per female), and egg development time (1->157 days), were highly variable. In contrast, juvenile development time showed less variation (7-16 days), and thus body length after 10 days was chosen as a sublethal bioassay character. A bioassay experiment using sediments isolated from mine-impacted cobble streams indicated that C. incongruens had a higher sensitivity to variation in sediment quality than the cladoceran Ceriodaphnia dubia. Surprisingly, the results indicated no correspondence between concentration of metals and toxicity in either C. incongruens or C. dubia. Overall our results indicate that ostracods are a good candidate taxon for sublethal toxicity tests of contaminated sediments.

Mother's Age and Hatching Phenology Strategy ofHeterocypris incongruens(Crustacea: Ostracoda) in Unpredictable Environment

“…In our second experiment, isofemales from a single clone maintained in controlled experimental condition produced both resting and nonresting eggs that showed very different development times. Similar results are reported by Havel and Talbott (), Rossi and Menozzi (), and Rossi et al. (, ).…”

Hatching phenology and voltinism of Heterocypris barbara (Crustacea: Ostracoda) from Lampedusa (Sicily, Italy)

“…Days and degree days from sediment hydration to the estimated appearance of putative generation for each microcosm and putative generation. (Havel and Talbott, 1995).…”

Short- and Long-Term Effects of the Pyrethroid Insecticide Fenvalerate on an Invertebrate Pond Community

“…Nevertheless, having a low sensitivity as juveniles and adults, they were not only able to survive the exposure but also able to quickly exploit the new resources in the perturbed and changed ecosystem. An alternative possibility is that the population survived the exposure only as resting eggs (Havel and Talbott, 1995) that hatched when the fenvalerate concentration declined. The increased amount of food, as discussed in the section on Oligochaeta, is suggested to be the main reason for population growth, as ostracods are omnivores feeding mainly on decaying organic matter (Clegg, 1974;Wetzel, 1975;Engelhardt, 1976).…”