scholarly journals The Micro-Estimation of Sulphates in Sea Water and the Body Fluids of Marine Animals

1939 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 438-445
Author(s):  
D. A. WEBB

Since Bottazzi's (1897) first determinations of the osmotic pressure of the body fluids of various marine animals many researches have been performed by other authors, particularly in reference to the permeability of the membranes separating the body from its surroundings. Bottazzi (1897, 1906, 1908, b) investigated individuals belonging to very different groups of animals, and found that the osmotic pressure of the body fluids of marine invertebrates, and of elasmobranchs, is very similar to that of the surroundings, while the osmotic pressure of the blood of teleosts is quite different. Changing the osmotic pressure of the medium, the osmotic pressure of most marine invertebrates, and of elasmobranchs, was shown to change in the same direction (L. Fredericq, 1882, 1904; Quinton, 1897; Dakin, 1908) and to reach, finally, the value of the former. The blood of teleosts is much more independent of the medium, for it shown to change only about 30 percent, in concentration, on transferring the animals from sea water to fresh water or vice versa (Dakin, 1908; Dekhuyzen, 1904: Sumner, 1905); other authors, however (fredericq, 1904: Garrey, 1905) could not field even these variations.


1939 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-177
Author(s):  
J. D. ROBERTSON ◽  
D. A. WEBB

Methods are presented for the estimation of sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride and sulphate in sea water and in other solutions, such as the blood and body fluids of marine animals, whose inorganic composition is similar to that of sea water. The estimations may be performed on 1 ml. samples, and the limit of error is about 2%. Sodium is precipitated and weighed as sodium zinc uranyl acetate; potassium is precipitated as potassium silver cobaltinitrite which is titrated with ceric sulphate; calcium is titrated with ceric sulphate after two precipitations as oxalate; magnesium is precipitated with hydroxyquinoline and the precipitate brominated and estimated iodometrically; chloride is treated with silver iodate and the released iodate estimated iodometrically; sulphate is titrated with barium chloride using sodium rhodizonate as indicator.


1932 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-68
Author(s):  
K. HUKUDA

1. Several species of marine invertebrates, and an elasmobranch, have been kept in diluted media. The increase of body weight so caused was compared with the resulting dilution of the body fluids. 2. The bounding membrane of the invertebrates was permeable to salts when the animals were immersed in diluted sea water. 3. The bounding membrane of the elasmobranch was semipermeable, i.e. permeable to water but not to solute. There is a close quantitative agreement between the osmotic swelling observed and the diminution of the osmotic pressure of the blood.


Author(s):  
G. W. Bryan ◽  
Eileen Ward

SUMMARYThe accumulation of 137Cs from sea water has been examined in relation to potassium metabolism in the lobster Homarus vulgaris and in the prawn Palaemon serratus. In unfed animals 137Cs is taken up and lost far more slowly than 42K. Although all the inactive K in the animals can be exchanged with 42K, higher whole-animal concentration factors are reached for 137Cs (about eight for lobsters and twenty-five for prawns). This is because both species have higher plasma/medium ratios for 137Cs than K at equilibrium despite the selective excretion of 137Cs. Also, except for the hepatopancreas in lobsters and fed prawns, all soft tissues can probably attain higher tissue/plasma ratios for 137Cs than inactive K.Uptake of both isotopes has also been studied in the freshwater crayfish Austropotamobius pallipes pallipes. In crayfish in o-i % sea water 137Cs is not concentrated to the same extent as K by whole animals (50-200 for 137Cs against about 4500 for K). Although the situation between plasma and tissues resembles that in the marine animals, 137Cs cannot be accumulated in the plasma to the same degree as K. Crayfish selectively excrete 137Cs in the urine relative to K at a lower concentration than in the plasma.In the accumulation of 137Cs by all species, muscle is the principal limiting factor in uptake and loss, but with 42K the body surface becomes more limiting.Experiments on the absorption of 137Cs from food in prawns and freshwater crayfish have been carried out. In prawns in a constant environment, feeding is probably less important than uptake over the body surface while in crayfish feeding is probably much more important.


1949 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-200
Author(s):  
JAMES D. ROBERTSON

1. Analyses have been made of the ionic composition of the body fluids of some twenty marine invertebrates belonging to five phyla. The body fluids were again analysed after dialysis in collodion sacs against samples of the original sea water in which the animals had been kept. Comparison of the two analyses in terms of weight of water gives a true measure of ionic regulation by taking into account such factors as the Donnan equilibrium and the formation of calcium-protein complexes in those animals with significant concentrations of protein in their blood. 2. Some ionic regulation is found in all the animals examined, but it is most pronounced in the cephalopod Mollusca and the decapod Crustacea. 3. The mesogloeal tissue fluid of the jelly-fish Aurelia showed the following composition (expressed as percentage of concentration in the dialysed fluid): Na 99%, K 106%, Ca 96%, Mg 97%, Cl 104%, SO4 47%. This regulation seems to be brought about by elimination of sulphate and accumulation of potassium by the epithelia bounding the mesogloea, with resultant alteration in the remaining ions in conformity with osmotic equilibrium between the jelly and sea water. 4. In the echinoderms studied only potassium is regulated, values in the perivisceral fluid not exceeding 111% being found, with higher values in the ambulacral fluid. Polychaetes regulated potassium (up to 126%) and sometimes reduced sulphate (92%). 5. Regulation extends to all ions in the decapod Crustacea. In six species the range was Na 104-113%, K 77-128%, Ca 108-131%, Mg 14-97% Cl 98-104%, SO4 32-99%. There is a series Lithodes, Cancer, Carcinus, Palinurtis, Nephrops and Homarus in which magnesium falls from 97 to 14%; the series is roughly in accordance with increase of activity. Analyses given of the secretion from the antennary glands emphasize the importance of these organs in controlling the composition of the blood. They eliminate magnesium, sulphate, and sometimes calcium, and conserve the other ions. 6. Lamellibranchs and gastropods accumulate potassium and calcium, and eliminate sulphate to a small degree. Range of values in six species was Na 97-101%, K 107-155%, Ca 103-112%, Mg 97-103%, Cl 99-101%, SO4 87-102%. 7. Considerable ionic regulation exists in the Cephalopoda, ranges being Na 95-98%, K 152-219%, Ca 94-107%, Mg 102-103%, Cl 101-104%, SO4 29-81%. In Eledone and Sepia differential excretion by renal organs is an important factor in this. Sulphate and sodium are eliminated in quantities greater than would be present in an ultrafiltrate of the plasma, tending to lower these values, whereas the other ions are excreted in proportions below those of an ultrafiltrate, tending to elevate their concentrations in the blood. 8. The ratio of equivalents Na+K/Ca+Mg in the body fluids of these marine invertebrates remains at the sea-water figure of 3.8 in Aurelia, echinoderms, anneli worms, and lamellibranchs, but decreases in the gastropods and cephalopods to 3.5. In the decapod Crustacea, owing principally to reduction of magnesium, it increases from 3.8 in Lithodes to 9 and 12 in the Palinura and Astacura genera.


1937 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-70
Author(s):  
L. C. BEADLE

1. Nereis diversicolor collected from the same locality at different times showed smaller weight increases in dilute sea water (25 per cent) during the winter than during the summer months. 2. In spite of great variations in the weight curve, the body fluid concentration curve was very constant. 3. The maintenance of hypertonic body fluids and the regulation of body volume are largely unconnected. 4. The lowering of the weight curve below that theoretically expected from the concentration curve cannot be attributed to passive salt loss through the body surface. It is suggested that this is due to the removal of fluid through the nephridia under the hydrostatic pressure produced by the contraction of the body wall muscles. 5. Animals previously subjected to dilute sea water, when placed in water isotonic with the body fluids, will increase the concentration of the latter. This result is more marked when the internal hydrostatic pressure is high. 6. The results suggest that the osmotic regulatory mechanism involves the removal by the nephridia of fluid hypotonic to the body fluids. But no direct evidence for this is available. 7. Calcium deficiency and cyanide in dilute sea water cause an increase of weight and ultimately inhibit the maintenance of hypertonic body fluids. Both these effects are reversible. 8. The mechanism by which body fluids are maintained hypertonic to the external medium is not sufficiently developed to be of survival value in the locality in which the animals were found. 9. The control of body volume is probably of greater importance. 10. The majority of the extra oxygen consumption in dilute sea water is not the result of osmotic work. It is suggested that it may be due to work done by the body wall muscles in resisting swelling.


2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Jackson ◽  
Daniel Brooks

AbstractWe recount here two experiments carried out which suggest the existence of the first described integumentary osmoreceptor of its kind in a vertebrate. Domed pressure receptors, present on the cranial scales of alligators have previously been demonstrated to convey the sensation of "touch" when flattened by pressure. Here we find that morphologically similar domed sensory organs present on the post-cranial scales of crocodylid but not alligatorid crocodilians flatten when exposed to increased osmotic pressure, such as that experienced when swimming in sea water hyper-osmotic to the body fluids. When contact between the integument and the surrounding sea water solution is blocked, crocodiles are found to lose their ability to discriminate salinities. We propose that the flattening of the sensory organ in hyper-osmotic sea water is sensed by the animal as "touch", but interpreted as chemical information about its surroundings.


1988 ◽  
Vol 137 (1) ◽  
pp. 549-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Ahlgren ◽  
C. C. Cheng ◽  
J. D. Schrag ◽  
A. L. DeVries

The distribution of antifreeze glycopeptides (AFGPs) in the body fluids and tissues of antarctic notothenioid fish was determined. In Dissostichus mawsoni (Norman), the peritoneal, pericardial and extradural fluid, like the blood, contained all eight AFGPs and in concentrations sufficient to depress freezing points below that of sea water (−1.9 degree C). Secreted fluids including urine, endolymph and aqueous and vitreous humour either lack all AFGPs or have very low concentrations of only the low molecular weight forms and have freezing points of about −1.0 degree C, and are therefore undercooled with respect to environmental temperature. Fluids with high concentrations of AFGPs also contain high levels of proteins similar to plasma proteins. Systemic administration of tritiated AFGPs in the closely related species Trematomus bernacchii (Boulenger) yielded a distribution pattern similar to that of the native AFGPs in D. mawsoni. This suggests passive distribution of AFGPs into the various fluid compartments following secretion from the liver; a pattern typical of secreted blood proteins. Tissue distribution of AFGPs was determined by comparison with that of the extracellular space marker [14C]polyethylene glycol. AFGPs were found in the interstitial fluid of all body tissues examined except brain tissue. No tissue showed any intracellular accumulation of tritiated AFGPs from the blood.


1954 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 402-423
Author(s):  
WARREN J. GROSS

1. The sipunculid Dendrostomum zostericolum demonstrates no ability to regulate osmotically. 2. Dendrostomum behaves superficially as an osmometer, but is actually more complex: (a) the worm shows volume control in concentrated and dilute sea water; (b) it is permeable to salts, mostly through the gut and/or nephridiopores; (c) it can release osmotically active particles from its body wall to the blood. 3. The body wall of Dendrostomum is highly permeable to water, but only slightly to salts. Permeability for both salts and water is greater inwards than outward. 4. Dendrostomum can tolerate a loss of 36% body weight by desiccation and recover when returned to sea water. The mechanism of this tolerance appears to be the removal by fixation in the tissues, of osmotically active particles from the body fluids.


1930 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 437-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albrecht Bethe

The surfaces of all marine invertebrates which have been experimented upon are permeable for water and also for both the salts or their ions which are in solution in their blood and in sea water. The forces which tend to bring the salt content of the blood into equilibrium with the salt content of the surrounding sea water are just as great as the forces which strive to prevent osmotic differences. The skin of these animals, save in the cases where special modifications have arisen, serves only as a protecting barrier preventing the loss of the body colloids.


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