The effect of hydrogen ions and inorganic complexing on copper uptake in the brine shrimp Artemia franciscana has been studied in chemically defined saltwater solutions. Uptake increases with decreasing hydrogen ion concentration and decreases with increasing carbonate complexation. A simple non-linear model that combines the effect of hydrogen ions on the transport of the metal across the solution-body interface and the effect of hydrogen ions and complexation on the speciation of the metal provided a close functional description of the observed variation in copper uptake by brine shrimp
