Uptake of Cadmium by Gammarus fossarum (Amphipoda) From Food and Water

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Abstract
(1) Survival and cadmium accumulation of Gammarus fossarum Koch were compared when the water or its food, conditioned oak leaves, were contaminated. (2) In starving animals, LC50 values were 30-40 times lower in cadmium-contaminated soft water than in hard water. Final cadmium concentrations in dead animals were similar in both treatments. (3) Aquatic hyphomycetes, which occur on conditioned leaves, accumulated cadium very rapidly and to high final concentrations. (4) G. fossarum eating contaminated leaves suffered increased mortality and accumulated cadmium in its tissues. (5) In soft water, direct effects of cadmium contamination on G. fossarum were much more severe than indirect effects suffered through ingestion of contaminated food. In hard water, uptake from water also had a more drastic effect than uptake through food, but the difference was less pronounced. The importance of contaminated food is probably highest when cadmium pollution in streams occurs as a pulse too short to dirctly affect G. fossarum, but long enough to allow cadmium accumulation by fungi on leaves.