-19tsotopes.

Levels of activity were 8,500 d/m/g pre-Nectar, reached

a maximum of 10 d/m/g four days post-Nectar,

and

declined to a

level of 3,000 d/m/g at 305 days and 537 days

(Fig. 1).

Gut with content

The hermit crab gut with its content was generally more variaple than liver in levels of activity, particularly during the
first month post-Nectar.

This difference is to be expected since

digested food would have variable amounts of surface contamination —
and not all crabs would feed on the same thing at any one time.
Initially, following the Nectar test,

the gut had the highest

level of activity of all tissues (5 x 106 a/m/g).

The activity in

the gut also had the shortest ecological half life of all tissues
during the first 100 days post-Nectar.

By 100 days, the levels

of activity in gut and liver approached each other and their eco-

logical half lives were about the same, although the gut remains
so variable from collection to collection that only an approxi-

mation can be made.

The activity in the carapace by 100 days was

higher than that in the gut even though the latter had the highest
initial activity.

This variation is, of course, due

to

the

different rates of decline, which reflect selection of the long-

.

lived isotope Sr?° by the carapace.
No chemical analyses of gut samples were made.

POE ARCHIVES

Gill
The rate of decline of activity of the gill of the crab is

more rapid than the rateof decay of mixed fission produds during
the first 10 to 20 days post-Nectar, but thereafter approximates

es

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