Is Arenicola marina a suitable test organism to evaluate the bioaccumulation potential of Hg, PAHs and PCBs from dredged sediments?

M. C. Casado-Martínez, V. Branco, C. Vale, A. M. Ferreira, T. A. DelValls

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper presents the results of investigations on the suitability of lugworms (Arenicola marina) to study the bioaccumulation potential of Hg, PCB and PAH compounds from dredged sediments upon laboratory exposure. The results of tissue concentrations for several sediments from Spanish ports showed that it is possible to identify increased levels of contaminants in lugworms just after 10 days of exposure although different bioaccumulation trends were shown amongst compounds and sediments. Total and organic Hg compounds were accumulated following a non-linear trend, with a sharp increase of tissue concentrations in lugworms exposed to levels of contamination associated to a significant increase in mortality. Interestingly organic Hg compounds accounted for an average of 40% of the total Hg in lugworms exposed to sediments presenting sublethal concentrations while, when exposed to sediments presenting lethal concentrations, organic Hg compounds only accounted for 4% of the total Hg accumulated in lugworms. While lugworms seem to readily accumulate Hg and PCB compounds, with some variability explained by the organic matter content in sediments or other factor for which it accounts for, the results for PAHs suggest a more complex process of bioaccumulation as no relationship was observed between the measured concentrations in sediments and in lugworms, not even after correcting the results for this factor. Besides, the differences in the calculated BSAFs for each compound and for each sediment supported the use of bioassays for evaluating the bioaccumulation potential of sediment-bound contaminants as part of the assessment framework required in pre-dredging investigations, as they still offer unique information about the bioavailability of sediment-bound contaminants.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1756-1765
Number of pages10
JournalChemosphere
Volume70
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2008
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Bioavailability
  • Hg
  • PAHs
  • PCBs
  • Polychaetes
  • Sediment quality assessment

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Is Arenicola marina a suitable test organism to evaluate the bioaccumulation potential of Hg, PAHs and PCBs from dredged sediments?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this