Distribution of intracellular solutes inArenicola marina(Polychaeta) equilibrated to diluted sea water

Abstract

Recent studies on the osmotic responses of marine invertebrates to dilution of the external medium have tended to emphasize the osmotic and ionic regulation at the intracellular level rather than at blood/body fluid level. Even in those invertebrates, principally euryhaline crustaceans, possessing osmoregulatory mechanisms which enable them to maintain concentrations of the blood above those of dilute media, the regulation is not perfect, and there is some lowering of the blood concentration below the level exhibited in full-strength sea water (Lockwood, 1962). This requires the establishment of a new osmotic equilibrium between the intracellular solutes and those of the blood. The nature of the intracellular osmotic constituents is, however, strikingly different from those of the blood, even in those invertebrates which are stenohaline and purely marine in their distribution (Robertson, 1961). The osmotic pressure of the blood is due almost entirely to the same inorganic electrolytes as are present in sea water, although the percentage contribution of the various ions may differ. On the other hand these inorganic ions account for only about one third to one half of the intracellular osmotic pressure. The remainder is accounted for by organic solutes, most particularly free amino acids.