The accumulation of dissolved zinc by the shore crabCarcinus Maenas(L.)

The uptake and accumulation of zinc by the shore crab Carcinus maenas have been studied in different dissolved Zn concentrations. Carcinus mamas accumulated about 2, 10 and 200% of its initial load of Zn on exposure to 23, 100 and 3162 µg l−1 radioactively labelled Zn respectively for 21 days. No significant Zn excretion was observed in crabs exposed to 100 µg Zn l−1 suggesting that C. maenas normally maintains a relatively unchanged body Zn content by maintaining a low Zn uptake rate, rather than a high Zn turnover rate. Zn excretion did occur when crabs were exposed to the environmentally high concentration of 3162 µg Zn l−1. The exoskeleton was found to be an important storage site for Zn absorbed from solution.