Anaerobic capacity of a crustacean sensitive to low environmental oxygen tensions, the freshwater amphipod Gammarus pulex (L.)

Abstract

We investigated the accumulation of haemolymph L-lactate in response to anoxia, progressive hypoxia and activity, in a species that rarely encounters low PO2 in its natural environment, the freshwater amphipod Gammarus pulex (L.). Individuals survived <1.5 h anoxia and accumulated L-lactate in the haemolymph at a rate of 10.26 mmol l−1 h−1. No lactate was excreted into the medium during this time. Despite the fact that most individuals of G. pulex were oxyconformers, exposure to acutely declining PO2s did not result in a switch to anaerobic pathways until PO2 < 4.4 kPa. Even then the concentrations accumulated remained very low until PO2 < 0.46 kPa. There was no accumulation of L-lactate in the haemolymph as a result of exhaustive activity. Consequently, it was suggested that (a) it cannot be automatically assumed that anaerobic metabolism is switched on only at the point at which oxyregulation breaks down, (b) that the poor anaerobic capacity observed plays little, if any, role in the metabolic response to hypoxia by Gammarus pulex.