Abstract

The embryos of marine bivalves have been commonly used in bioassays for the quality assessment of marine environments. Although several standard protocols for developmental bioassay with bivalves have been already proposed, there have been few trials for applying these protocols in environmental assessment, or for developing new protocol with Korean species. So, there is a strong need to establish the standard bioassay protocols using bivalves commonly found in Korean waters. Prior to developing a new protocol, it is essential to know the optimum conditions for the reliable bioassay procedures. Here, we established the purpose of this study to determine the optimum bioassay conditions for successful development of a common mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis. The conditions considered as critical for developmental bioassay, and determined in this study were; (1) temperature, (2) salinity, and (3) initial density of embryo. The optimal temperature for developmental bioassay of M. galloprovincialis was determined as <TEX>$15^{\circ}C$</TEX>. At this temperature, the required time for the embryo to become veliger larva was 48 hr. The acceptable range of salinity for the embryotoxicity test using M. galloprivincialis was from 30 to 35 psu, which was narrower than that of the natural habitat of adult populations. The optimum density of embryo at the beginning of bioassay was 100 embryos/ml. Over this density, the proportion of normally developed larvae decreased significantly. The results obtained in this study will serve as a basis for preparation of the standard bioassay protocol using embryo of M. galloprovincialis.