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Cardiac Activity of Pontastacus leptodactylus (Decapoda) under Prolonged Exposure to High Salinity: on the Possibility of Using Freshwater Crayfish in Testing Brackish Waters

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Abstract

In this study we analyze the characteristics of the cardiac activity of crayfish held on a long-term basis in an environment with high salinity (6.5‰) in order to find out the fundamental possibility of using them as bioindicators in bioelectronic systems for monitoring the quality of marine coastal waters under high anthropogenic load. Similar salinity values were noted for many bays of the Baltic Sea subregions, for example, the Tallinn and Bothnian bays, which are characterized by intense anthropogenic load. It is found that an increase in water salinity from 0 to 6.5‰ causes an initial short-term increase in heart rate (HR) by 30%. It has been shown that crayfish can not only successfully survive for 1 month in high salinity water, but also change the characteristics of cardiac activity to a small extent. Some features are revealed in crayfish in water with altered salinity. During exposure to saline solution, crayfish show a clear diurnal rhythm of cardiac activity. The rhythmicity of the heart rate disappears a few days before the molt in both fresh and salt water. This study makes it possible to come to a conclusion about the possibility of using freshwater crayfish in bioelectronic systems for the continuous monitoring of the functional state of representatives of the local biota and for identifying the biological effects of pollutants in both fresh and brackish water.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The work was performed using the equipment of the Environmental Safety Observatory of the St. Petersburg State University Research Park.

Funding

This work was carried out as part of the state task of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, project no. 122041100085-8 “Scientific Bases for Assessing the Health of Ecosystems in Northwestern Russia and Preventing Threats to Environmental Safety” as well as GZ_MDF-2023-1 St. Petersburg State University, Project ID: 101662710.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Scientific Research Centre for Ecological Safety, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia

    S. V. Sladkova, T. V. Kuznetsova, V. A. Lyubimtsev & S. V. Kholodkevich

  2. St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia

    S. V. Sladkova

  3. Papanin Institute for Biology of Inland Waters, Russian Academy of Sciences, Borok, Nekouzskii raion, Yaroslavl oblast, Russia

    S. V. Kholodkevich

Authors
  1. S. V. Sladkova
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  2. T. V. Kuznetsova
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  3. V. A. Lyubimtsev
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  4. S. V. Kholodkevich
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Correspondence to S. V. Sladkova.

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Conflict of interests. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Statement on the welfare of animals. This article does not contain any studies involving animals or human participants performed by any of the authors.

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Translated by A. Bulaev

Abbreviations: HR, heart rate; HRr, heart rate at rest during the daytime period; HRn, heart rate at night, HRs, heart rate after initial reaction to salt

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Sladkova, S.V., Kuznetsova, T.V., Lyubimtsev, V.A. et al. Cardiac Activity of Pontastacus leptodactylus (Decapoda) under Prolonged Exposure to High Salinity: on the Possibility of Using Freshwater Crayfish in Testing Brackish Waters. Inland Water Biol 16, 939–944 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1995082923050164

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