Meeting Abstract

71.1  Sunday, Jan. 6  Interactive effects of hypoxia and naphthalene in the brown shrimp, Penaeus aztecus ZOU, E.; Nicholls State University em.zou@nicholls.edu

The brown shrimp, Penaeus aztecus, in the northern Gulf of Mexico is faced with dual stresses of hypoxia, which occurs as a result of oxygen depletion from microbial decomposition of organic materials from algal blooms, and pollution from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from petroleum and gas production on the continental shelf of the northern Gulf of Mexico. The objectives of this study were 1) to address whether the presence of PAH contamination makes penaeid shrimps more susceptible to hypoxia and 2) to investigate whether hypoxia can promote PAH bioaccumulation in penaeid shrimps. The susceptibility of shrimps to hypoxia was represented by the oxyregulating capacity, a physiological parameter that describes how well an aquatic animal regulates its oxygen consumption when subjected to hypoxia. It was found that acute exposure to naphthalene, a representative PAH, significantly reduces oxyregulating capacity of Penaeus aztecus. Hypoxia was found to have no significant effect on naphthalene bioaccumulation in Penaeus aztecus. The absence of a significant effect was attributed to increased naphthalene metabolism in shrimps subjected to hypoxia.