Experimental Chronic Exposure of the Foraminifer Pseudotriloculina rotunda to Zinc

• Authors: Maria Pia Nardelli , Anna Sabbatini , Alessandra Negri
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

PL

Miliolid (calcareous imperforated test) foraminifera have large diffusion all over the world in a wide range of marine environments, but their distributional pattern in relation to heavy metal pollution is not clearly understood yet. The aim of this study was to better understand the biological response of the miliolid species Pseudotriloculina rotunda to experimental chronic exposure at several zinc concentrations. The duration of the experiment was 10 weeks, and six different concentrations of zinc were tested between 0 and 100 mg/L. Increasing zinc concentrations led to increasing delay or to complete cease of the new chambers’ construction, with consequences on growth rates and affected vitality and biomass variations at medium to high concentrations. Moreover, our results showed that, even at high concentrations, zinc did not cause macroscopic test deformities due to anomalous arrangements of chambers.

Keywords

PL

foraminifera, zinc pollution, heavy metal, test deformations, survival, growth rates

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Jagielloński. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
• Journal: Acta Protozoologica
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 52
• Issue: 3

Dates

published

2013

online

07 - 09 - 2015

Contributors

author

Maria Pia Nardelli

author

Anna Sabbatini

author

Alessandra Negri