Marine Ecotoxicological Assessment Using the Nauplius of Marine Harpacticoid Copepod Tigriopus japonicus

Harpacticoid copepod Tigriopus japonicus is widely distributed in coastal waters of Korea and plays important role in marine trophic structure as a first consumer. In this study, a series of experiment were conducted to test the potential of the species as a standard test species for marine bioassay. Tolerance on salinity and pH, sensitivity on the reference materials(copper sulfate and cadmium chloride) and response on the ocean dumping materials(waste sludge) we re tested to identify if the species satisfy the basic criteria as standard species for marine bioassay. The nauplius of the species() showed wide tolerance on salinity with >90.0% survival rates exposed to for 48 h. Wide adaptability on pH's were also observed from 6.3 to 8.2 with >90.0% survival rates during the test. values for copper sulfate and cadmium chloride were , respectively. The variations in mortality between replicates were less than 10.0%. Comparison of values indicated that T. japonicus nauplius was lower sensitive to copper sulfate than the most marine crustaceans included copepods, however, the sensitivity of test animal to cadmium chloride higher than the adults of copepod T. japonicus, Paracalanus parvus, and marine rotifer Brachinonus plicatilis. There were significant concentration-response relationship in the mortality of T. japonicus nauplius using the elutriates of three ocean dumping materials(industrial waste sludge). 48 h values we re for the elutriate of sludge from leather processing company and for that of dye production company. Based on the above experimental results, bioassay using benthic harpacticoid T. japonicus nauplius must be a good estimation tool for marine ecotoxicological assessment of waste or chemicals. Wide tolerance on the salinity and pH, and significant linear relationship between concentration and response(mortality) supported the high potential of the species as a standard test species.