Toxicity of Copper Sulphate on Copepod species
Nwakanma, C., & Chimezie A. F.
Department of Environmental Management and Toxicology
College of Natural Resources and Environmental Management
Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria
Email: dr.nwakanmac@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
The toxicity of copper sulphate on zooplankton was studied. Copepod, a tropical freshwater zooplankton was isolated from Qua Iboe river water and treated with copper sulphate solutions in concentration of 0,5,10,15 and 20 mg/l for a contact period of 48 hrs. Meanwhile physiochemical and microbiological characteristics of the river water was also studied. Results showed that the river water quality was not in conformity with regulations based on WHO permissible level. Most of the heavy metals failed as well as the BOD, DO and COD levels which recorded 7.03μg/l, 9.83μg/l and 11367mg/l respectively. The microbial loads were also higher than the permissible levels with total viable counts of bacteria load of 1.67×109cfu/ml and fungi load of 7.61×102cfu/g. Toxicity levels of Copper on live copepods was in the range of 23.83% to 57.1%. Toxicity was found to increase with increasing concentrations of CuSO4 from 5μg/ml to 20μg/ml which represented active activity of pollutant against the organism. It was observed that discharge of CuSO4 containing wastes into the environment constitute a level of pollution with potential adverse consequences to human health.
Keywords: algae, copepods, toxicity, food chain, ecology, copper sulphate
