Spiked sediment toxicity test

Lamberson, J.O. and Swartz, R.C. (1992) Spiked-sediment toxicity test approach, in Sediment Classification Compendium, EPA 823-R-92-006, U.S. EPA, Office ofWater, Washington, DC. 

Chapman, K.K., Benton, M.J., Brinkhurst, R.O. and Scheuerman, P.R. (1999) Use of the aquatic oligochaetes Lumbriculus variegatus and Tubifex tubifex for assessing the toxicity of copper and cadmium in a spiked-artificial-sediment toxicity test, Environmental Toxicology 14 (2), 271 -278. 

OECD (2004) Sediment-water chironomid toxicity test using spiked sediment. Test Guideline 218. OECD, Paris, doi 10.1787/9789264070264-en... 

Environment Canada (1995) Guidance document on measurement of toxicity test precision using control sediments spiked with a reference toxicant, Report EPS l/RM/30, Environment Canada, Ottawa, 56... 

Fuchsman, PC., Barber, T.R. and Sheehan, P.J. (1998) Sediment toxicity evaluation for hexachlorobenzene spiked sediment tests with Leptocheirus plumulosus, Hyalella azteca, and Chironomus tentans, Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 35 (4), 573-579. 

OECD (2001a) Proposal for a new guideline 218 Sediment-water Chironomid toxicity test using spiked sediment, OECD Guidelines for the Testing of Chemicals, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Washington, DC (2003-12-23) http //www.oecd.Org/dataoecd/40/3/2739721. pdf. 

Sensitivity of biotests in terms of uncertainty considerations refers to the potential of a test system to indicate or to predict correctly the effects of contaminants in the sediment, thereby minimising false positive (nontoxic sample inconectly classified as toxic) and false negative (toxic sample incorrectly classified as nontoxic) results. Ingersoll et al. (1997) pointed out that whole-sediment tests with benthic organisms and acute measurement endpoints showed a high degree of certainty in this respect. This has also been shown by Ronnpagel et al. (1998) for a bacteria contact test which correlated well with the autochthonous microbial activity in experiments with spiked sediments. 

The studies of SeKT have the objective of testing the applicability of sediment contact tests with a possibly wide range of different sediments. This means primarily determining the variabihty of the test results with the aim of improving the reliability of the tests. The project plan comprises i) the application of the sediment contact tests with different sediments in order to identify the influences of natural sediment properties on the test systems ii) the definition of reference conditions, including the standardisation of negative controls iii) the determination of toxicity thresholds for the individual sediment contact tests. Further, iv) the test systems should be validated with contaminated natural sediments and by means of dose-effect relations with sediment samples that were spiked with selected contaminants. The results obtained within the project should serve as a data base for improved interpretation and evaluation of ecotoxicological sediment analyses. 

A toxicity test is an experiment in which organisms of a single species are exposed in the laboratory to a clean natural sample (soil, sediment or water) which has been spiked with a known chemical or mixture of chemicals, generally over a range of concentrations. The purpose is to measure the degree of a response associated with specific concentrations of the chemical(s). 

Sibley, P.K., Ankley, G.T., Cotter, A.M. and Leonard, E.N. (1996) Predicting chronic toxicity of sediments spiked with zinc an evaluation of the acid-volatile sulfide model using a life-cycle test with the midge Chironomus teutons, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 15 (12), 2102—2112. 

Reference toxicants recommended by Environment Canada (1995) are copper and fluoranthene. Both chemicals are reference toxicants used preferentially in spiked control sediments for chronic whole-sediment tests. If the aim of the positive control is to measure the sensitivity of the test organisms in acute tests, water-only exposures may be used. 

---