| Project Title |  |
| Project
B2: Development of rational models for relating metal
accumulation by aquatic animals to metal concentrations in their
environment: relative importance of ambient metal sources.
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| Research Team | |
| L. Hare, Univ. de
Québec. Email: landis_hare@inrs-eau.uquebec.ca Tel: 418-654-2640 Co-Investigators: N. Yan, York University.
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| Project Summary | |
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The major objective of this project is to improve the ability to predict the accumulation of trace metals by aquatic animals. To do that, determinations of the following are necessary: the importance of food versus water as metal sources for invertebrates; influence of food-related variables on consumer metal content; and, influence of animal behaviour on metal accumulation from sediment. The importance of food versus water as metal sources for invertebrates has been determined for Chaoborus punctipennis: planktonic food is the major Cd source for this insect, and preliminary laboratory results for Sialis velata suggest the same thing. The influence of food-related variables on metal bioaccumulation has been determined for Chaoborus: through the use of a one-compartment model, values for key parameters such as metal assimilation efficiency as well as constants for metal uptake and loss have been estimated. The values of these parameters can be compared both for a given species feeding on various prey types as well as among species feeding on a given prey type, helping to explain the traneds in metal concentrations in various field populations of this insect. The influence of animal behaviour on metal accumulation from sediment is being investigated in laboratory studies of animal burrowing and irrigation behaviour. |
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