The actual copper concentration present in the algae and approximate copper ration delivered per feed is shown in Table 4.2. Detailed methods for algal culture and metal bioaccumulation in D. tertiolecta are shown in Appendix C. In the chronic exposure,larvae received a copper spike or were fed contaminated algae every 2 - 3 days from three days post-fertilisation to settlement; while in pulse exposure, a single 4-day pulse was administered midway through larval development (8 – 12 d postfertilisation).Each of the treatments, including the controls, were done in triplicate.
Table 4.2: Copper concentration in water and in diet used in larval assays. Dissolved concentrations are measured concentrations in water (filtered through a 0.45 μm mesh). Dissolved copper in control seawater was measured four times between 2010 and 2014, and the range of concentrations is reported.Other dissolved concentrations were measured once in 2013. Metal in algae is the total metal accumulated in Dunaliella tertiolecta from two week-old cultures (N = 3). Ration per feed is the total metal present in a feed (ng / 8000 algal cells).