Estimation of conditional stability constant for copper binding to fish gill surface with consideration of chemistry of the fish gill microenvironment.

Binding-site concentration and conditional stability constants for copper and fish gill surface interactions were calculated based on the data from the literature. Six scenarios were modeled by including or excluding pH and alkalinity differences between the fish gill microenvironment and the bulk solution and the presence of free mucus in the calculation. We demonstrate that changes in pH or alkalinity, or both, for model input had only a slight influence on the calculated results because of the small difference in pH and alkalinity between the gill microenvironment and the bulk solution under the specific experimental conditions. Inclusion of free mucus in the model, however, led to a large change in the final results. For example, with consideration of free mucus and changes in pH and alkalinity in the model, the calculated site concentration and the stability constant were 0.022 micromol/g wet tissue and log K=8.77, respectively, compared to 0.026 micromol/g wet tissue with log K=7.78 without free mucus and pH/alkalinity change.