Michael J. Ahrens

The literature shows that assimilation efficiencies of lab-spiked nonpolar contaminants by deposit-feeders are generally much greater than the assimilation of the organic carbon sorbent matrix. Thus the rate and extent of contaminant desorption into the aqueous gut environment is likely to play a significant role in uptake from sediments. Contaminated New York Harbor sediments were examined in parallel desorption kinetic and bioaccumulation studies with the clam Yoldia limatula. A clear relationship was observed between the contaminant desorption rates over the first two days and organism/sediment bioaccumulation factors (BAF) determined across a wide range of individual PCBs, PAHs, and linear alkylbenzenes. Bioavailability was affected by hydrophobicity, shape of the contaminant, and contaminant class/source. Lower bioavailability of PAH may be the result of matrix associations with soot or fine coal particles. Interestingly, contaminant desorption/bioavailability were not influenc...

... coal stockpiles are commonly located close to waterways and therefore represent a major source of ... of England, for example, subject to inputs of coal from natural weathering and dumping ... by alteration of the nature of the substratum or by modification of processes of predation ...

Page 1. PART III Bioavailability, Exposure and Effects in Environmental Compartments PAHs: An Ecotoxicological Perspective. Edited by Peter ET Douben Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. ISBN: 0-471-56024-3 Page 2. 7 An Overview of the Partitioning ...

This paper reports the detection of Pseudothyone belli on submerged hard substrates at three sites in Santa Marta during port surveys conducted in March and October 2010. Owing to its high adaptive and competitive capability, it appears likely that the species has established itself in the Colombian Caribbean.

The aim of the study was to obtain a revised and updated checklist of the species of copepods of the Colombian Caribbean. Methods for updating included a critical compilation of records in published and unpublished articles, and our own results of a study of zooplankton in a project on bioinvasions of coastal waters, conducted in 2010. Twenty taxa reported solely in undergraduate thesisneed taxonomical comprobation and were excluded from the inventory. As a baseline, we used the most recent inventory published by Medellín-Mora and Navas (2010). Ten species recorded in the already mentioned project are new records. Thirteen species reported by other researchers in publications after 2010 increased the species list. The inventory totals 214 species of copepods (158 Calanoida, 38Cyclopoida, 15 Harpacticoida, 2 Mormonilloida and 1 Monstrilloida). Most species are planktonic (201), while only a few are benthic (10) or epibenthic (3). Nomenclature of the taxa was revised and updated as we...

In the present study, the sensitivity and concentration dependence of three functionally-defined components of cholinesterase activity (total: T-ChE; eserine-sensitive: Es-ChE; and eserine-resistant: Er-ChE) were quantified in the gill, digestive gland and adductor muscle of the tropical cup oyster Saccostrea sp., following acute (96h) aqueous exposure to commercial formulations of the organophosphate (OP) insecticide chlorpyrifos and the neonicotinoid (NN) imidacloprid (concentration range: 0.1-100mg/L), as well as to dissolved cadmium and copper (concentration range: 1-1000μg/L). Oysters (1.5-5.0cm shell length), field-collected from a boating marina in Santa Marta, Colombia (Caribbean Sea) were exposed in the laboratory to each substance at five concentrations. T-ChE, Es-ChE, and Er-ChE activity were quantified in the three tissues in pools of 5 individuals (3 replicates per concentration), before and after inhibition with the total cholinesterase inhibitor eserine (physostigmine...

This paper aims to contribute to the use of mangrove cupped oyster, Crassostrea rhizophorae, as a biomonitor species for chemical contamination assessment in mangrove-lined Caribbean coastal systems. Sampling was carried out in eight localities (three in Nicaragua and five in Colombia) with different types and levels of contamination. Oysters were collected during the rainy and dry seasons of 2012-2013 and the tissue concentrations of metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) were determined. Low tissue concentrations of metals (except Hg) and PAHs; moderate-to-high tissue concentrations of Hg, hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs), and dichlorodiphenyl-trichloroethanes (DDTs); detectable levels of chlorpyrifos, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) (mainly CB28, CB118, CB138 and CB 153) and brominated diphenyl ethers 85 (BDE85); and negligible levels of musks were recorded in Nicaraguan oysters. A distinct profile of POPs was identified in Colombi...

Metallothioneins and vitellogenins are low molecular weight proteins that have been used widely in environmental monitoring as biomarkers of exposure and damage to metals and estrogenic compounds, respectively. In the present study, the responses of metallothionein and vitellogenin tissue concentrations were measured following acute (96h) aqueous exposures to cadmium in Saccostrea sp., a tropical cup oyster native to the Western Pacific Ocean that has recently established itself in the Caribbean Sea. Adult oysters (1.5-5.0cm shell length) collected from the municipal marina of Santa Marta, Colombia (Caribbean Sea) and acclimated for 5days in the laboratory, were exposed to Cd at five concentrations (0, 1, 10, 100 and 1000μg/L) and their tissues (gills, digestive gland and adductor muscle) were analyzed in pools of 5 individuals (3 replicates per concentration). Metallothioneins in digestive glands of oysters exposed to Cd concentrations≥100μg/L showed a significant increase, from 8....

Page 1. PART III Bioavailability, Exposure and Effects in Environmental Compartments PAHs: An Ecotoxicological Perspective. Edited by Peter ET Douben Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. ISBN: 0-471-56024-3 Page 2. 7 An Overview of the Partitioning ...

... Butler JD and Crossley P (1981) Reactivity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons adsorbed on soot particles. ... Gearing JN, Gearing PJ, Wade T, Quinn JG, McCarty HB, Farrington J and Lee RF (1979) The rates of transport and fates of petroleum hydrocarbons in a controlled ...

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in sediment from Auckland Harbour (New Zealand) are not distributed evenly throughout bulk sediment, but highly concentrated in coarser, low-density fractions. Concentrations of 24 PAHs, measured in sediment that was separated into six size fractions that were furthermore separated into two density sub-fractions by flotation in sodium-polytungstate solution (rho = 2.15 g cm(-3)), varied between 4-103 microg g(-1)dw among grain size fractions and 2-998 microg g(-1)dw for density sub-fractions. Highest PAH concentrations were measured in the low density, 125-250 microm fraction. All sediment fractions had a similar relative PAH composition, dominated by >3-ring PAHs, suggesting a common pyrogenic origin. Low density material had 10-200 times higher PAH concentrations and 10-100 times higher organic carbon (OC) content, yet differences in OC content only partially accounted for variations in PAH concentration. Low density particles contributed more than 75% of the Sigma PAH, while comprising only 3% of bulk sediment dry weight. This may have significant utility for contaminant mitigation efforts in Auckland Harbour.

Benthic community patterns were investigated in the Northeast Water polynya (Greenland) during the summers of 1992 and 1993 to elucidate to what extent the bottom fauna is influenced by the dynamics of the overlying water. Five different fractions of the benthos ( ...

This study assessed the sensitivity of Macomona liliana (bivalvia, tellinacea) to UV-photoactivated fluoranthene toxicity. Juvenile clams (0.5-2.0 mm) were exposed to a range of aqueous fluoranthene concentrations (5-500 microg/L) for 96 h, after which the clams' ability to rebury in control sediment was determined. Survivors of these fluoranthene-only toxicity tests were then exposed in clean seawater to UV radiation from a solar radiation-simulating light source for 1 h. The differences between EC(50) values before and after UV exposure provided a measure of phototoxicity of the bioaccumulated fluoranthene. Fluoranthene tissue burdens corresponding to the EC(50) values were determined by exposing a second batch of clams to (14)C-radiolabeled fluoranthene. A third experiment quantified the kinetics of fluoranthene uptake and elimination in water-only exposures. Fluoranthene phototoxicity was found to depend on the dose of fluoranthene and the duration of UV exposure. Exposure of animals to 1 h of UV radiation resulted fluoranthene toxicity that was 3 times higher (EC(50) = 46 microg/L) than that of those with no UV exposure (EC(50) = 153 microg/L). The corresponding critical body burden (i.e., fluoranthene tissue concentration at which 50% of the clams failed to rebury) was 6 ng/clam (or 700 microg/g dry weight [dw]) and 21 ng/clam (or 2300 microg/g dw) for UV-exposed and UV-unexposed animals, respectively. First-order uptake and elimination coefficients, determined in the kinetics experiment, were 0.825 Lg(-1) h(-1) and 0.059 h(-1), respectively, indicating rapid uptake and a short fluoranthene tissue half-life of approximately 12 h for M. liliana. Compared with other bivalve species of similar size, M. liliana appeared to be more than 1 order of magnitude less sensitive to UV-activated fluoranthene toxicity, although these differences may be a result in part of differences in the UV exposure regime. Nonetheless, the majority of M. liliana exposed to a fluoranthene concentration of 50 microg/L displayed evidence of UV-photoactivated toxicity within 30-60 min of irradiation, and prolonging UV exposure more than 2 h killed all clams. These results demonstrate that even short UV exposures, as perhaps encountered during normal feeding or byssus-drifting behavior, may significantly increase toxicity to juvenile M. liliana possessing elevated fluoranthene tissue concentrations.

Bioavailability and accumulation of sediment-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) by benthic biota are closely related to their extractability by water or mild aqueous solvents. Nevertheless, PAH accumulation by benthic organisms is sometimes considerably different from predictions based on an equilibrium partition coefficient KOC between water and bulk sedimentary organic carbon (OC). We present evidence that PAH extractability is strongly affected by the type of OC acting as a sorbent. We compared extractability of spiked [14C]fluoranthene from a variety of natural and man-made OC matrices, including bulk sediment organic carbon, peat moss, power plant fly ash, diesel soot, petroleum/natural gas soot, coal dust, and carbon black. Artificial sediments were prepared from glass beads amended with equal weight percentages (2%) of nine different types of OC. Amended sediments were spiked with [14C]fluoranthene and batch-extracted with seawater and 0.5% sodium dodecyl sulfate (...