Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-l4ctd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-24T15:35:08.089Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Calcification in the Shore Crab, Carcinus Maenas (L.): pH and the Precipitation of Carbonate From Sea Water and Blood

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

Peter S. B. Digby
Peter S. B. Digby
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, P.Q., Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Much evidence has suggested that calcification in Carcinus and certain other marine organisms may arise at least partly by the local formation of base. The extent of changes of pH needed to precipitate calcium carbonate from sea water or from the blood of the crab are not known with certainty. These have been investigated, using sea water and crabs from the coast of Maine.

Mean sea water pH, mostly as measured in aerated samples used for experiments in the laboratory, was 8·00, a little below the values commonly found close to the shore in summer. The corresponding mean blood pH was 7·12. Crushing calcified crab cuticle in sea-water raised the pH, showing the sea water to be below saturation with the salts concerned. The rise in pH was slightly greater in the more dilute suspensions, an effect attributed to the mixed composition of the calcifying salts. Thus in one group of experiments cuticle crushed in sea water in proportions 1:20 and 112·7 raised its pH by 0·66 and 0·62 units respectively, and extrapolation suggested that interstitial fluid of almost zero volume would equilibrate at 0·38 pH units above sea water. Crushing cuticle in crab blood in proportion 1:2·7 raised its pH by 1·03 units, showing the plasma also to be unsaturated with carbonate.

Carbonates were precipitated from sea water by rendering it alkaline with sodium hydroxide; in four experiments the first crystallites were found in samples in which in 3 days after addition of base pH had fallen to between 8·46 and 9·30. In a longer series of experiments with crab plasma, crystals were first seen in samples in which after three days the mean pH had fallen to 8–09. Crystallites at the surface formed mosaics of spherulites closely resembling those of normal crab cuticle.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 64 , Issue 1 , February 1984 , pp. 233 - 248
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bathurst, R. G. C. 1975. Carbonate sediments and their diagenesis, 2nd edition. Developments in Sedimentology, 12, 658 pp.Google Scholar
Cloud, P. R. 1965. Carbonate precipitation and dissolution in the marine environment. In Chemical Oceanography, vol. 2 (ed. J. P. Riley and G. Skirrow), pp. 127–158. Academic Press.Google Scholar
Cook, R. C. & Kepkay, P. E. 1980. The solubility of aragonite in seawater. 1. Effect of pH and water chemistry at one atmosphere. Geochimica et cosmochimica acta, 44, 1071–1075.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deer, W. A.Howie, R. A. & Zussman, J. 1962. Rock-forming Minerals, vol. 5. Non-Silicates. 371 pp. London: Longmans, Green.Google Scholar
Digby, P. S. B. 1967. Calcification and its mechanism in the shore-crab, Carcinus maenas (L.). Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, 178, 129–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Digby, P. S. B. 1968. Mobility and crystalline form of the lime in the cuticle of the shore crab, Carcinus maenas. Journal of Zoology, 154, 273–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Digby, P. S. B. 1977a. Growth and calcification in the coralline algae, Clathromorphum circumscriptum and Corallina officinalis, and the significance of pH in relation to precipitation. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 57, 1095–1109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Digby, P. S. B. 1977b. Photosynthesis and respiration in the coralline algae, Clathromorphum circumscriptum and Corallina officinalis and the metabolic basis of calcification. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 57, 1111–1124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Digby, P. S. B. 1979. Reducing activity and the formation of base in the coralline algae: an electrochemical model. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 59, 455–477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edmond, J. M. & Gieskes, J. M. T. M. 1970. On the calculation of the degree of saturation of sea water with respect to calcium carbonate under in situ conditions. Geochimica et cosmochimica acta, 34, 1261–1291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glimcher, M. J. 1976. Composition, structure and organization of base and other mineralized tissues and the mechanism of calcification. In Handbook of Physiology. Section 7. Endocrinology (ed. R. O. Greep and E. B. Astwood), pp. 25–116. Washington: American Physiological Society.Google Scholar
Groot, K. De & Duyvis, E. M. 1966. Crystal form of precipitated calcium carbonate as influenced by adsorbed magnesium ions. Nature, London, 212, 183–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guyton, A. C. 1976. Textbook of Medical Physiology, 5th ed. 1194 pp. Philadelphia, London, Toronto: W. B. Saunders.Google Scholar
Hancox, N. M. 1972. Biology of Bone. 199 pp. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Harvey, H. W. 1955. The Chemistry and Fertility of Sea Waters. 224 pp. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Honjo, S. & Erez, J. 1978. Dissolution rates of calcium carbonate in the deep ocean; an in situ experiment in the North Atlantic Ocean. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 40, 287–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horne, R. A. 1969. Marine Chemistry. 568 pp. New York: Interscience.Google Scholar
Keir, R. S. 1980. The dissolution kinetics of biogenic calcium carbonate in seawater. Geochimica et cosmochimica acta, 44, 241–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morse, J. W.Mucci, A. & Millero, F. J. 1980. The solubility of calcite and aragonite in seawater of 35‰ salinity at 25°C and atmospheric pressure. Geochimica et cosmochimica acta, 44, 85–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Revelle, R. & Fleming, R. H. 1934. The solubility product constant of calcium carbonate in seawater. Proceedings of the Fifth Pacific Science Congress, 3, 2089–2092.Google Scholar
Richards, A. G. 1951. The Integument of Arthropods. 411 pp. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Robertson, J. D. 1937. Some features of the calcium metabolism of the shore crab {Carcinus maenas Pennant). Proceedings of the Royal Society (B), 124, 162–182.Google Scholar
Robertson, J. D. 1939. The inorganic composition of the body fluids of three marine invertebrates. Journal of Experimental Biology, 16, 387–397.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robertson, J. D. 1949. Ionic regulation in some marine invertebrates. Journal of Experimental Biology, 26, 182–200.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schmalz, R. F. & Chave, K. E. 1963. Calcium carbonate: factors affecting saturation in ocean waters off Bermuda. Science, New York, 139, 1206–1207.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Simkiss, K. 1964a. Variations in the crystalline form of calcium carbonate precipitated from artificial sea water. Nature, London, 201, 492–493.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simkiss, K. 1964b. The inhibiting effects of some metabolites on the precipitation of calcium carbonate from artificial and natural sea water. Journal du Conseil, 29, 6–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simkiss, K. 1976. Intracellular and extracellular routes in biomineralization. Symposia of the Society for Experimental Biology, no. 30, 423–444.Google Scholar
Sjoberg, E. L. 1978. Kinetics and mechanism of calcite dissolution in aqueous solutions at low temperatures. Stockholm Contributions in Geology, 32 (1), 1–92.Google Scholar
Smith, C. L. 1940. The Great Bahama Bank. II. Calcium carbonate precipitation. Journal of Marine Research, 3, 171–189.Google Scholar
Stumm, W. & Morgan, J. J. 1970. Aquatic Chemistry. 583 pp. New York: Wiley-Interscience.Google Scholar
Wattenberg, H. 1933. Kalziumkarbonat und Kohlensäure-gehalt des Meerwassers. Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der Deutschen Atlantischen Expedition auf dem Vermessungs- und Forschungsschiff ‘Meteor’ 1925–27, 8 (2), 122–231.Google Scholar
Weyl, P. K. 1961. The carbonate saturometer. Journal of Geology, 69, 33–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar