Effects of exposure to sublethal concentrations of crude oil on the copepod Centropages hamatus

Female copepods of the species Centropages hamatus show decreased ingestion rates and decreased egg viability when exposed to crude oil/seawater dispersions having crude oil concentrations of 10–80 ppb. However, rates of egg production were not significantly affected by these exposure levels. In addition, we found no evidence for accumulation of petroleum hydrocarbons by copepods exposed to 200 ppb of South Louisiana crude oil. The results imply that biosynthetic pathways involved in oogenesis may be influenced by sublethal concentrations of crude oil or that petroleum hydrocarbons directly affect the viability of eggs. Recruitment into field populations of copepods could be severely reduced as a consequence of exposure to low levels of physically dispersed crude oil.