INFLUENCE OF SEDIMENT COMPOSITION ON APPARENT TOXICITY IN A SOLID-PHASE TEST USING BIOLUMINESCENT BACTERIA

摘要

Clean and spiked sediment formulations of various silt:sand and clay:sand ratios were tested for toxicity using a bioassay that utilizes bioluminescent bacteria. Measured toxicities of clean and copper sulfate-spiked sediments were negatively but nonlinearly related with percent silt and percent clay, but no significant relationship existed between measured toxicity and sediment composition for methyl parathion-spiked formulations. Results suggest that solid-phase sediment bioassays using bio-luminescent bacteria may be useful for testing the toxicities of single contaminants in formulated artificial sediments of known particle-size composition, and for repeated samples collected from the same site. However, extreme caution must be taken when testing sediments of varying composition or which may be differentially contaminated or contain a suite of contaminants.