Due to the contamination of a 113 km reach of the James River, Kepone poses a serious environmental threat to the Chesapeake Bay. The purpose of the study is to determine the acutely toxic and sublethal levels of kepone for the copepod Acartia tonsa, and to investigate what effects those levels may have on filtration rates.
Kepone was determined to be acutely toxic to A. tonsa, with a 96 hour LC50 of 4.96 ug/1. Dunaliella tertiolecta was selected as the food source for the grazing experiments. Kepone concentrations of 0.046 ug/1 significantly (0.05 level) reduced the flltering rate under conditions of chronic exposure. The lesser concentrations of 0.025 and 0.0046 ug/1 of kepone were not significantly different from the controls. It is hoped that research into the chronic stress of this pesticide may potentially provide information which would be useful in the overall understanding of the sublethal impact of chlorinated pesticides on a global scale
