Accumulation and toxicokinetics of fluoranthene in sediment bioassays with freshwater amphipods

✍ Scribed by Susan Kane Driscoll; Gail A. Harkey; Peter F. Landrum

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 120 KB
• Volume: 16
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0730-7268
• DOI: 10.1002/etc.5620160419

✦ Synopsis

Two freshwater amphipods, Hyalella azteca and Diporeia sp., were exposed to sediment spiked with radiolabeled fluoranthene at nominal concentrations of 0.1 (trace) to 1,270 nmol fluoranthene/g dry weight. In two experiments, uptake kinetics and mortality were determined over 30-d exposures. Concentrations of fluoranthene in sediment and pore water were also measured. Mean survival of H. azteca was generally high, greater than 90% after 10 or 16 d, and greater than 74% after 30 d. Mean survival was lower for Diporeia, 14% after a 30-d exposure to the highest sediment concentration in experiment 1, and 53% in experiment 2. Tissue concentrations in Diporeia were as high as 2 to 4 mol/g wet weight, a body burden that could be expected to result in death by narcosis. Hyalella azteca did not typically accumulate more than 1 mol/g wet weight, which is consistent with the lower observed mortality. Apparent steady-state biota-sediment accumulation factors (BSAFs, lipid-and organic-carbon-normalized) for sediment concentrations other than trace level tended to be higher for Diporeia (0.345-0.818) than for H. azteca (0.161-0.612). The BSAFs for trace levels tended to be lower for both species (0.045-0.436) in comparison to higher sediment concentrations. For both organisms, the internal concentration based on body residue was a more reliable indicator of toxicity than were equilibrium partitioning predictions.