THE BIOLOGY OF DASYCHONE LUCULANA (SABELLIDAE : POLYCHAETA) I- EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE, ZINC AND COPPER ON RESPIRATION

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Dept. of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Zagazig University, Egypt.

2 Dept. of Biology, Faculty of Applied Science, Umm Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Respiration of Dasychone luculana collected from Lake Timsah (On the Suez canal) and from El-Shuaiba area, on the Red Sea, Saudi Arabian coast, under different temperatures and concentrations of Zn and Cu was determined. The former's water is considered polluted and the latter's one is considered clean. The oxygen consumption of D. luculana collected from the polluted area was significantly higher than collected from the clean one. Increasing the temperature has elevated the amount of oxygen consumed by D. luculana collected from both areas. Increasing the sublethal concentrations of both Zn and Cu has increased the respiration of the worms from both areas of study. Those collected from the Saudi coast were more active compared with those collected from the Suez Canal.