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Journal of Experimental Biology 101,255-264 (1982)
Published by Company of Biologists 1982

Acid-Base Balance in Callinectes Sapidus During Acclimation from High to Low Salinity

RAYMOND P. HENRY ¹ and JAMES N. CAMERON ¹

¹ Departments of Zoology and Marine Studies, the University of Texas at Austin, Marine Science Institute, Port Aransas, Texas 78373

When transferred from 865 to 250 m-osmol salinity, the blue crab C. sapidus maintains its blood Na⁺ and Cl^- concentrations significantly above those in the medium. When branchial carbonic anhydrase is inhibited by acetazolamide, ion regulation fails and the animals do not survive the transfer. An alkalosis occurs in the blood at low salinity, indicated by an increase in HCO₃^- and pH at constant P_CO2. The alkalosis is closely correlated with an increase in the Na⁺–Cl^- difference, a convenient indicator of the overall strong ion difference. The contribution of changes in P_CO2 to acid-base changes was negligible, but the change in the total weak acid (proteins) may be important. It is suggested that the change in blood acidbase status with salinity is related to an increase in the strong ion difference, which changes during the transition from osmoconformity to osmoregulation in the blue crab, and which is related to both carbonic anhydrase and ionactivated ATPases.

Note:

Present address: Department of Physiology G4, The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104 (to whom all correspondence should be addressed).