We investigated the effect of temperature on disk abalone Haliotis (Nordotis) discus discus hemolymph CO_2 solubility coefficient (αco_2) and the apparent dissociation constant of carbonic acid (pKapp). The disk abalone hemolymph was equilibrated with a standard CO_2 gas mixture between 10℃ and 20℃, to obtain expressions for αco_2 and pKapp as a function of temperature. The relationship between αco_2 and temperature (T) is expressed as follows: αco_2 = 74.005 - 1.2936 • T - 0.00944 • T^2. And the relationship between pKapp and temperature expressed as follows: pKapp = 6.4675 - 0.08682 • T + 0.003996 • T^2. In these equations, the parameter units are ℃ for T and µM/L/torr for αco_2. The non-bicarbonate buffer values (ꞵ_NB), obtained as a regression coefficient relating pH and [HCO_3^–], were 2.5 Slykes at 10℃, 2.2 Slykes at 15℃, and 3.4 Slykes at 20℃. These equations enable estimation of hemolymph αco_2 and pKapp between temperatures of 10℃ and 20℃.
Handa Takeshi
Araki Akira