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ASSESSING POTENTIAL BIOAVAILABILITY OF METALS IN SEDIMENTS: A PROPOSED APPROACH
Citation:
Ankley, G., N. Thomas, D. DiToro, D.J. Hansen, J. Mahony, W.J. Berry, AND e. al. ASSESSING POTENTIAL BIOAVAILABILITY OF METALS IN SEDIMENTS: A PROPOSED APPROACH. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/J-94/257 (NTIS PB94176161), 1994.
Description:
Due to anthropogenic inputs, elevated concentrations of metals frequently occur in aquatic sediments. n order to make defensible estimates of the potential risk of metals in sediments and/or develop sediment quality criteria for metals, it is essential to identify that fraction of the total metal in the sediments that is bioavailable. tudies with a variety of benthic invertebrates indicate that interstitial (pore) water concentrations of metals correspond very well with the bioavailability of metals in test sediments. any factors may influence pore water concentrations of metals; however, in anaerobic sediments a key phase controlling partitioning of several cationic metals (cadmium, nickel, lead, zinc, copper) into pore water is acid volatile sulfide (AVS) in this paper, we present an overview of the technical bass for predicting bioavailability of cationic metals to benthic organisms based on pore water metal concentrations and metal-AVS relationships. included are discussions o4 the advantages and limitations of metal bioavailability predictions based on these parameters, relative both to site-specific assessments and the development of sediment quality criteria.