A non-destructive assessment of the exposure of crabs to PAH using ELISA analyses of their urine and haemolymph

Urine and haemolymph can be repeatedly sampled from crabs with no (or limited) damage to the organism. Their analysis offers a measure of the animals' exposure to biologically available contaminants. Shore crabs (Carcinus maenas) were exposed to the PAHs phenanthrene and pyrene at concentrations ranging from 20 to 200 μg l−1. After 48 h, urine and haemolymph samples were taken and analysed using ELISA and UV-fluorescence spectrophotometry. High correlations were recorded between the two sets of results from the urine analyses (r2=0.83 for phenanthrene and r2=0.88 for pyrene). Contaminant concentrations were much lower in haemolymph than in the urine. Analyses of urine taken from crabs collected from clean and contaminated sites confirm the suitability of these analyses for environmentally exposed organisms. Again, a good correlation was recorded between the ELISA and spectrofluorimetric analysis (r2=0.83). In this instance, difficulties were experienced with haemolymph analyses owing to a lack of sensitivity.