Abstract
This paper describes a novel sediment bioassay which can be used in intertidal mud or sand, thereby exposing a contaminated sediment to a large range of naturally colonising fauna. Natural sediment, in which invertebrates had been killed by freezing, was mixed with diesel-based drilling mud (nominally 1000 mg kg–1 dry wt as diesel-based-mud equivalents) or particulate tributyltin (TBT) copolymer antifouling paint (nominally 0.1, 1.0 and 10 mg TBT kg–1 dry wt). The contaminated sediments were then re-laid intertidally in trenches lined with polythene mesh.
All treatments except 0.1 mg TBT kg–1 impaired the casting activity of the polychaete, Arenicola marina. Populations of the polychaete, Scoloplos armiger, and the amphipod, Urothoe poseidonis, were reduced in all contaminated treatments, and a dose-response effect of TBT was demonstrated. No clear effects on other groups (e.g. molluscs) were seen.
The results showed that this is a useful technique, although further development is required before it can be used routinely.
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Matthiessen, P., Thain, J.E. (1989). A method for studying the impact of polluted marine sediments on intertidal colonising organisms; tests with diesel-based drilling mud and tributyltin antifouling paint. In: Munawar, M., Dixon, G., Mayfield, C.I., Reynoldson, T., Sadar, M.H. (eds) Environmental Bioassay Techniques and their Application. Developments in Hydrobiology, vol 54. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1896-2_48
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1896-2_48
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