The sites of respiratory gas exchange in the planktonic crustacean daphnia magna: an in vivo study employing blood haemoglobin as an internal oxygen probe.

Recent studies on Daphnia magna have revealed that the feeding current is important for uptake of oxygen from the ambient medium. Respiratory gas exchange should therefore mainly occur within the filtering chamber, whose boundaries are formed by the trunk and the extended carapace shell valves. The precise site of gas exchange in the genus Daphnia is, however, a matter of conjecture. We have developed a method of imaging the haemoglobin oxygen-saturation in the circulatory system of transparent animals, which provides an opportunity to localize oxygen uptake from the environment and oxygen release to the tissues. Experiments were carried out at 20 degrees C on 2.8-3.0 mm long parthenogenetic females maintained in hypoxic culturing conditions, which had resulted in an increased haemoglobin content in the haemolymph. In lateral views of D. magna, the highest values of haemoglobin oxygen-saturation occurred near the posterior margin of the carapace and, surprisingly, in the rostral part of the head. The ambient oxygen partial pressures at which haemoglobin was half-oxygenated were 15 mmHg (2.0 kPa) for the posterior carapace region and 6 mmHg (0.8 kPa) for the rostrum. Although not all parts of the circulatory system could be analyzed using this technique, the data obtained from the accessible regions suggest that the inner wall of the carapace is a major site of respiratory gas exchange. Taking the circulatory pattern and the flow pattern of the medium in the filtering chamber into consideration, it becomes clear that the haemolymph, after passing from the limbs to the carapace lacuna, becomes oxygenated while flowing through the ventral part of the double-walled carapace in a posterior direction. The laterally flattened rostral region, where sensory and central nervous system structures are located, seems to have direct diffusive access to ambient oxygen, which could be especially advantageous during severe hypoxia when the convective transport systems fail to supply enough oxygen to that region.