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Assessing exposure of sediment biota to organic contaminants by thin‐film solid phase extraction
Author(s) -
Meloche Lizanne M.,
deBruyn Adrian M. H.,
Otton S. Victoria,
Ikonomou Michael G.,
Gobas Frank A. P. C.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
environmental toxicology and chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1552-8618
pISSN - 0730-7268
DOI - 10.1897/08-081.1
Subject(s) - environmental chemistry , bioaccumulation , diffusive gradients in thin films , sediment , bioavailability , extraction (chemistry) , biota , solid phase extraction , contamination , environmental science , thin film , chemistry , materials science , chromatography , ecology , geology , biology , nanotechnology , paleontology , bioinformatics
Differences in bioavailability among sediments are a source of variability and uncertainty in sediment quality assessment. We present three sets of studies designed to test a thin‐film solid phase extraction technique for characterizing the bioavailability of organic chemicals in sediments. Laboratory studies with spiked natural sediments reveal highly reproducible thin‐film extractions for chemicals with octanol–water partition coefficients between 10 4.5 and 10 8.5 , with 95% equilibration times between 1 and 600 h. Studies with field‐collected sediments illustrate that method detection limits are sufficiently low for field application at contaminated sites. Bioaccumulation studies with clams ( Macoma balthica ) show excellent correlations between thin‐film and animal tissue concentrations. We conclude that thin‐film extraction provides an ecologically relevant, fugacity‐based measure of chemical exposure that can be expected to improve sediment quality assessments.