Spatiotemporal Distribution of Hydrophobic Organic Contaminants in Spiked‐Sediment Toxicity Tests: Measuring Total and Freely Dissolved Concentrations in Porewater and Overlying Water

The benthic foraminifers Bulimina denudata and Eggerelloides advenus are commonly abundant in offshore regions in the Pacific Ocean, especially in waste-discharge sites. The relationship between their abundance and standard macrofaunal sediment toxicity tests (amphipod survival and sea urchin fertilization) as well as sediment chemistry analyte measurements were determined for sediments collected in 1997 in Santa Monica Bay, California, USA, an area impacted by historical sewage input from the Hyperion Outfall primarily since the late 1950s. Very few surface samples proved to be contaminated based on either toxicity or chemistry tests and the abundance of B. denudata did not correlate with any of these. The abundance of E. advenus also did not correlate with toxicity, but positively correlated with total solids and negatively correlated with arsenic, beryllium, chromium, lead, mercury, nickel, zinc, iron, and TOC. In contrast, several downcore samples proved to be contaminated as indicated by both toxicity and chemistry data. The abundance of B.denudata positively correlated with amphipod survival and negatively correlated with arsenic, cadmium, unionized ammonia, and TOC; E. advenus negatively correlated with sea urchin fertilization success as well as beryllium, cadmium, and total PCBs. As B. denudata and E. advenus are tolerant of polluted sediments and their relative abundances appear to track those of macrofaunal toxicity tests, their use as cost- and time-effective marine sediment toxicity tests may have validity and should be further investigated.

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Modifying tie methods to demonstrate dietary toxicity in whole-sediment toxicity tests

Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management ◽

10.1002/ieam.5630040314 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 371-372 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Tina Micevska ◽

Stuart Simpson

Keyword(s):

Sediment Toxicity ◽

Toxicity Tests ◽

Sediment Toxicity Tests ◽

Dietary Toxicity ◽

Whole Sediment

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Ecotoxicological assessment of sediments from the Santos and São Vicente estuarine system- Brazil

Brazilian Journal of Oceanography ◽

10.1590/s1679-87592006000100005 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 54 (1) ◽

pp. 55-63 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Augusto Cesar ◽

Camilo Dias Seabra Pereira ◽

Aldo Ramos Santos ◽

Denis Moledo de Sousa Abessa ◽

Nuria Fernández ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sediment Toxicity ◽

Principal Component ◽

Sediment Contamination ◽

Estuarine Sediments ◽

Toxicity Tests ◽

Estuarine System ◽

Chemical Analyses ◽

Sediment Toxicity Tests ◽

Close Relationship ◽

Aquatic Food

Sediments represent an important repository of pollutants and a source of contamination for the aquatic food web. Toxicity tests using amphipods as test-organisms have been employed in the assessment of marine and estuarine sediments, together with chemical analyses. The present work aimed to evaluate the quality of sediments from six stations situated in the Santos and São Vicente Estuarine and Harbour System (São Paulo - Brazil) using acute whole sediment toxicity tests with amphipods (Tiburonella viscana) and chemical analyses of metals, PCB's, and PAH's. Other sediment parameters, such as organic carbon and grain size distribution were also analysed. Higher contamination levels were observed in the internal portion of the estuary, where Santos harbour and the industrial zone are located. The toxicity tests showed significant adverse results for most of the samples tested, and the sediments from the internal portion of the estuary presented the highest toxicity. The principal component analyses (PCA) indicated a close relationship between sediment contamination and toxicity. Positive correlation of these factors in the samples studied was used to establish the ranges of the chemical concentrations associated with adverse effects. Such ranges allowed the estimation of preliminary effect threshold values for sediment contamination, by means of multivariate analysis. These suggested values are: Cu, 69.0; Pb, 17.4; Zn, 73.3 (mg.kg-1); PAHs, 0.5 (mg.kg-1) and PCBs, 0.1 (µg.kg-1).

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