9.2.1 Acute Toxicity Testing of Sediments 



PASQUALE F. ROSCIGNO, ARTHUR V. STIFFEY*, W. DAVID BURKE', and DIANE K. ARWOOD" 



WS Fish and Wildlife Sen-ice. National Wetlands Research Center, Slidell. Louisiana, USA 



Wflirt/ Oceanographic and Atmospheric Research Laboratory, Stennis Space Center, Mississippi, USA 



' Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, Ocean Springs, Mississippi, USA 



• Department of Oceanography, University of Southern Mississippi, Stennis Space Center, Mississippi, USA 



Introduction 



The Bering and Chukchi Seas are rich with hving and 

 energy resources valuable to both the USA and USSR. A 

 balance between exploiting the petroleum reserves and 

 conserving the unique structure and functions of the marine 

 food webs must be attained if the Bering and Chukchi Seas are 

 to remain productive ecosystems. As a response to this 

 development, a program must be formulated that will serve to 

 monitor and protect the important ecosystems of these seas 

 (Hood & Calder, 1981; Izrael & Tsyban, 1986; Hale. 1987; 

 Becker, 1988). 



A consensus has emerged that a comprehensive monitoring 

 program must integrate chemical survey infomiation, single- 

 species toxicity testing, and field survey data into an ecosystem- 

 level evaluation of contaminants impact. Each of these 

 approaches, taken separately, does not provide the information 

 needed to protect living resources (Levin et al.. 1984; Long & 

 Chapman, 1985; Izrael & Tsyban, 1986; Connell, 1987). 



While chemical surveys are important in detemiining the 

 benchmark levels (Rice et al.. Subchapter 8. 1 .3, this volume; 

 Krynitsky et al.. Subchapter 8.3.2, this volume) and the 

 biogeochemical pathways of toxicants in the environment 

 (Flegel & Patterson, 1983), little information about the 

 contaminant's biochemical, physiological, and ecological 

 effects can be obtained (Cairns & Pratt, 1987). 



Similarly, the utility of measuring individual species' 

 response to environmental contamination has its limitations. 

 Possible responses that can be measured include determining 

 rates of biotransformation (Griffiths et al.. 1982), 

 bioaccumulation and food-chain transfers ( Foster et al. . 1987). 

 and single-species toxicity tests (Chapman & Long, 1983). 

 Extrapolation from these single-species assessments of exposure 

 to a determination of ecosystem-level adverse impacts cannot 

 be properly deduced. 



Field survey data are often extremely complex and natural 

 variability may mask perturbations caused by exposure to 

 contaminants (Levin et al.. 1984). More sophisticated field 

 experiments are needed to determine the impact of an 

 invertebrate's exposure to a toxicant on its reproduction, 

 immigration, and recruitment and to assess how these impacts 

 change benthic community structure (Kimball & Levin, 1 985 ). 



The Sediment Quality Triad provides one model, from 

 many that are being developed, that could serve as a framework. 

 It encompasses chemical surveys, single-species toxicity testing. 



and field ecological assessments into an integrated assessment 

 of the actual ecological impact of contaminants on living 

 resources (Long & Chapman, 1985; Chapman, 1986). 



The object of this paper is to examine two single-species 

 toxicity tests that might be useful candidate tests as rapid 

 screening procedures in a comprehensive monitoring program. 

 One test uses the brine shrimp, Artemia salina (an anostracan 

 crustacean), and examines mortality of instar II and III nauplii 

 as the end-point (See Fig. 1) (Persoone & Wells, 1987). The 

 other uses the marine dinoflagellate Pyrocystis lunula and 

 measures the suppression of bioluminescence as an end-point 

 (See Fig. 2) (Stiffey, 1990). These two tests are applied to 

 determine the acute toxicity of sediment samples (collected 

 during the Third Joint US-USSR Bering & Chukchi Seas 

 Expedition, 26 July-2 September 1988) to these organisms. 



100 pm 



INSTAR I INSTAR II 



Fig. I. Morphology of nauplii ot\4r/('min. 



Materials and Methods 



INSTAR III 



Preparation of Sediments 



Sediment samples were collected as described by Rice 

 et al. (Subchapter 8.1.3, this volume) and Krynitsky et al. 

 (Subchapter 8.3.2, this volume). The sediment was stored at 

 -4°C until analyzed in the laboratory. The suspended particulate 

 phase of the sediment sample was used to determine whether 

 these samples were acutely toxic to the test organisms. Sainples 

 were thawed to room temperature and mixed in a blender until 

 thoroughly homogenized (usually about 15 min), and filtered 

 ( 1 micron- Whatman) 3.8% seawater was aerated and used for 



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