Sediment toxicity

Test type Matrices Species commonly used(a) 

Chronic toxicity tests (typically 7-35 days of exposure) Water, pore water, elutriate Freshwater - water flea (C. dubia), fathead minnow (P. promelasy and rainbow trout (0. mykiss) Marine/estuarine - mysid shrimp (A. bahiay inland silverside (M. beryllinay and sheepshead minnow (C. variegatus) 

Chronic toxicity tests (typically 28 days of exposure) Whole sediment Freshwater - amphipod (H. azteca), midge (C. tentans) Marine/estuarine - amphipod (L. plumulosus) 

Species commonly used in US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), American Testing and Materials (ASTM) and US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) testing programs. 

Sediment toxicity testing strategies are used to evaluate the potential toxicity of the sediment. The characteristics of the sediment, such as the water column or elutriate, pore water and bulk sediment, are evaluated using different testing regimes to tease out the impacts of various aspects of the complex sediment toxicity. Each of these aspects in concert with unknown contaminants or site conditions provides a weight of evidence for the overall impact of sediment toxicity on aquatic organisms. 

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Sediment Toxicity. Because of their low solubiUty ia water and lipophilic nature, phthalates tend to be found ia sediments. Unfortunately httle work has previously been carried out on the toxicity of phthalates to sediment dwelling organisms. Eor this reason ECPI has commissioned some sediment toxicity studies designed to measure the effect of DEHP and DIDP ia a natural river sediment on the emergence of the larvae of the midge, Chironomus riparius. 

Fig. 15-13 Organism mortality as a function of SEM/AVS ratio for a hypothetical sediment. This figure is generalized from results typical of sediment toxicity tests (e.g., Hansen et al, 1996). Organisms evaluated in such tests include amphipods and poly-chaetes. The symbols represent different sediments. The vertical line at 10° is positioned at an SEM/AVS ratio of 1.0 the horizontal line at 24% represents the limit of toxicity, that is, mortality 24% is defined as not the consequence of toxicity.

Swartz, R. C. Ditzworth, G. R., Schultz, D. W. and Lamberson, J. O. (1985). Sediment toxicity to a marine infaunal amphipod cadmium and its interaction with sewage sludge. Mar. Environ. Res. 18, 133-153. 

You J, Pehkonen S, Weston DP, Lydy MJ (2008) Chemical availability and sediment toxicity of pyrethroid insecticides to Hyalella azteca Application to field sediment with unexpectedly low toxicity. Environ Toxicol Chem 27(10) 2124—2130... 

Burton, G. and Allen, Jr. (Ed.) (1992). Sediment Toxicity Assessment. Boca Raton, FL Lewis. 

Hill, I.R., Matthiessen, R, and Heimbach, F. (Eds.) (1993). Guidance Document on Sediment Toxicity Tests and Bioassays for Ereshwater and Marine Environments. SETAC Europe Workshop on Sediment Toxicity Assessment. Renesse, the Netherlands, November 8-10, 1993. 

Toxicity in estuarine sediments—use of Mutatox and Microtox to evalu- 173 ate the acute toxicity and genotoxicity of organic sediments Toxicity tests for the analysis of pore water sediment a comparison of 4 174... 

High sediment toxicity was found near a chloralkali plant in the lower Ebro [48]. Rather than being transported downstream, however, these pollutants are trapped in local sediments by the Flix dam (Fig. 1) which forms a natural barrier impeding sediment transport and the mixing of fish populations [47, 48]. Due to the high accumulation of pollutants behind this and other dams, there is now a pressing need to dredge these sediments to clear the pollutants which have accumulated over many years. 

Ginn, T.C. and R.A. Pastorok. 1992. Assessment and management of contaminated sediments in Puget Sound. Pages 371-401 in G.A. Burton, Jr. (ed.). Sediment Toxicity Assessment. Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, FL. 

Since persistence in sediments is longer than that in the water column, the relevant toxicity studies are those that consider longer term, chronic exposures. A number of standard tests have been developed for assessing sediment toxicity and the bioassay of field collected sediments (e.g., [16-24]). The most commonly tested freshwater species are arthropods, including the amphipod shrimp // azteca and chironomid midge larvae, both Chironomus dilutus (formerly C. tentans) and C. riparius. Water-only studies have demonstrated that II. azteca are particularly sensitive to SPs (see Sect. 3) and in the published literature, this is the most commonly tested species for assessing the sediment toxicity of SPs. 

Table 4 Observed sediment toxicity values for H. azteca and C. dilutus and pore water concentrations predicted by equilibrium partitioning [25]...

Comparison of the relative sediment toxicity of different SPs can be difficult as there are a variety of different test methods and endpoints evaluated, in addition to other confounding factors relating to sediment quality. Amweg et al. [28] determined the toxicity of six SPs to //. azteca in 10-day studies at 23 °C in natural sediments containing 1-6% OC. Toxicity data were reported as bulk sediment concentrations and normalized to the organic carbon content (Table 5). The results indicated that normalization removed some, but not all, of the variability between sediments. Other factors such as sediment texture may also affect bioavailability and hence apparent toxicity in sediment studies. 

Table 5 Results of 10-day sediment toxicity tests with Hyalella azteca [28]...

Weston DP, You J, Harwood AD et al (2009) Whole sediment toxicity identification evaluation tools for pyrethroid insecticides in. Temperature manipulation. Environ Toxicol Chem 28 173-180... 

Amweg EL, Weston DP, You J, Lydy MJ (2006) Pyrethroid insecticides and sediment toxicity in urban creeks from California and Tennessee. Environ Sci Technol 40 1700-1706... 

Holmes RW, Anderson BS, Phillips BM, Hunt JW, Crane DB, Mekebri A, Connor V (2008) Statewide investigation of the role of pyrethroid pesticides in sediment toxicity in California s urban waterways. Environ Sci Technol 42 7003-7009... 

The prediction of sediment toxicity based on chemical data alone was questioned in a discussion paper by O Connor and Paul [25], But even with the inclusion of a bioassay there are problems. It was considered that a sediment should be classified as toxic if there was less than an 80% survival of exposed... 

Cleveland, L. Little, E.E. Petty, J.D. Johnson, B.T. Lebo, J.A. Orazio, C.E. Dionne. J. Crockett, A. 1997, Toxicological and chemical screening of Antarctica sediments Use of whole sediment toxicity tests, Microtox, Mutatox, and semipermeable membrane devices (SPMDs). Mar. Pollut. Bull 34 194-202. 

Hyne, R.V. and Everett, D.A. Application of a benthic euryhaline amphipod, Corophium sp., as a sediment toxicity testing organism for both freshwater and estuarine systems, Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol, 34(l) 26-33, 1998. 

Kwan, K.K. Dutka, B.J. Evaluation of the Toxi-Chromotest direct sediment toxicity testing procedure and Microtox sohd-phase testing procedure. B. Environ. Contam. Tox. 1992, 49, 656 662. 

Day, C. Dutka, B.J. Kwan, K.K. Batista, N. Reynoldson, T.B. Metcalfe-Smith, J.L. Correlations between sohd-phase microbial screening assays, whole-sediment toxicity tests with macroinvertebrates and in situ benthic community structure. J. Great Lakes Res. 1995, 21, 192-206. 

Kwan, K.K. Direct sediment toxicity testing procedure using Sediment-Chromotest Kit. Environ. Toxil. Water Quality 1995, 9, 193-196. 

Ronco, A.E. Sorbero, M.C. Rossini, G.D. Alzuet, P.R. Dutka, B.J. Screening for sediment toxicity in the Rio Santiago basin a baseline study. Environ. Toxic. Water Quality 1995, 10, 35-39. 

The bacterial Microtox tests and the other in vitro bioassays clearly indicated differences in sediment toxicity between locations (Table 7). In the Microtox SP assay inhibitory effects were found in sediment extracts from the Port of Amsterdam transect (i.e. TU values greater than 20 at sites 7 and 11). The highest response in the Mutatox assay was found at Oranjesluis (site 11) in the Port of Amsterdam. The reference values from the Mutatox assay at this site were below... 

Previous application of bioassays in sediment toxicity testing... 

ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials). (1988). Standard guide for conducting 10-day static sediment toxicity tests with marine and estuarine amphipods. In Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Pesticides, Resource Recovery, Hazardous Substances and Oil Spill Responses, Waste Disposal, Biological Effects, 11.04, ASTM E 1367. Ed. by ASTM, Philadelphia, USA, pp. 732-757. 

ASTM (1992). Standard guide for conducting 10-day static sediment toxicity tests with marine and estuarine amphipods, ASTM E 1367-92 732-757. 

Ferretti, J.A., Calesso, D.F. and Hermon, T.R. (2000). Evaluation of methods to remove ammonia interference in marine sediment toxicity tests. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 19, pp. 1935-1941. 

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