Modelling cadmium accumulation by benthic invertebrates in situ: The relative contributions of sediment and overlying water reservoirs to organism cadmium concentrations
La. Warren et al., Modelling cadmium accumulation by benthic invertebrates in situ: The relative contributions of sediment and overlying water reservoirs to organism cadmium concentrations, LIMN OCEAN, 43(7), 1998, pp. 1442-1454
An in situ experiment was designed (1) to determine the relative importance
of Cd in the sediment versus Cd in the overlying water for its accumulatio
n in benthic animals and (2) to test in situ the acid volatile sulfide (AVS
) model. Sediments of a low-Cd shield lake were artificially contaminated w
ith various amounts of Cd and placed at a littoral site in open plastic con
tainers in the lake bottom for 11 months to allow colonization by indigenou
s lake benthos. Gradients in sedimentary and interstitial water Cd concentr
ations were, thus, created in situ, although Cd concentrations in the overl
ying water remained low. Accumulation of Cd by benthic invertebrates was si
gnificantly and linearly correlated with sediment Cd concentrations across
treatment levels for most taxa. The magnitude of the response to the sedime
nt Cd gradient was taxon specific and consistent with differences in animal
ecology. Despite the high Cd contamination levels attained in the experime
nt, the population densities of most taxa appear to have been unaffected by
the presence of Cd. We used the results from the experimental containers t
o predict the sources of Cd for benthic animals in the environs. For almost
all of the taxa studied, individuals living in the low-Cd sediments outsid
e the experimental containers accumulated their Cd almost exclusively from
the overlying water; only the burrowing, sediment-feeding taxa Chironomus s
taegeri and members of the Tubificidae obtained substantial Cd from the sed
iment. Cadmium activities in the pore waters of the containers were in agre
ement with the AVS model, but the Cd concentrations found in the benthic or
ganisms did not. Our results from this shield lake suggest that predictions
of Cd concentrations in most benthic animals would be mote accurate if the
y were based on water column rather than on sedimentary Cd concentrations.