Effects of the Water-Soluble Component of Oil Pollution on Chemoreception by Crabs,
Abstract:
Many of the recent studies of the ecological effects of oil spills at sea have examined evidence of changes in the adult macrofauna, i.e., immediate lethal effects. The clean up efforts have focused on the floating masses of crude oil. These studies have overlooked the more sensitive physiological processes and that the minor water soluble component of the oil is potentially the most dangerous fraction to marine life. The research in this report has been concerned with chemoreception and sex pheromone communication in marine Crustacea. The feeding response and sex pheromone response of the Lined Shore Crab, Pachygrapsus crassipes was used to assay the possibility that chemoreception is particularly susceptible to the water soluble component of crude oil.