Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Limnology and Oceanography

ISSN

0024-3590

Publication Date

9-1991

Abstract

Marine teleostean fish are hypo-osmotic to seawater. As part of a multiorgan osmoregulatory strategy they drink seawater and selectively absorb water and minerals across the intestinal epithelium. Notably, divalent cations (Ca2+ and Mg2-) are left behind. We report here that in the gulf toadfish, Opsanus beta, the ionic by-products of osmoregulation in the intestine contribute to de novo formation of a carbonate mineral, tentatively identified as calcian kutnohorite. Our data suggest that intestinal mineralization is a general feature of osmoregulation in marine teleosts and that this process is an unrecognized and possibly substantial source of marine carbonate sediments.

DOI

10.4319/lo.1991.36.6.1227

Volume

36

Issue

6

First Page

1227

Last Page

1232

Comments

©1991, by the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, Inc.

Peer Reviewed

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