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METHOD FOR TESTING THE AQUATIC TOXICITY OF SEDIMENT EXTRACTS FOR USE IN IDENTIFYING ORGANIC TOXICANTS IN SEDIMENTS
Citation:
Heinis, L J., T L. Highland, AND D R. Mount. METHOD FOR TESTING THE AQUATIC TOXICITY OF SEDIMENT EXTRACTS FOR USE IN IDENTIFYING ORGANIC TOXICANTS IN SEDIMENTS. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 38(23):6256-6262, (2004).
Impact/Purpose:
to improve methods for studying mixtures of organic chemicals in aquatic sediments
Description:
Biologically-directed fractionation techniques are a fundamental tool for identifying the cause of toxicity in environmental samples, but few are available for studying mixtures of organic chemicals in aquatic sediments. This paper describes a method for extracting organic chemicals from sediments, then reintroducing them into water column toxicity tests in a way that mimics exposures in intact sediment. An example application showed good correspondence between organism responses in intact sediment and extracts in SPMDs for both field-collected and spiked sediments. The SPMD-based method offers a simple, flexible test design, amenable to several different test organisms, and the ability to work with complex mixtures of contaminants while maintaining partitioning behavior similar to that within intact sediments.