A LABORATORY AND FIELD COMPARISON OF SEDIMENT POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBON BIOACCUMULATION BY THE COSMOPOLITAN ESTUARINE POLYCHAETE STREBLOSPIO-BENEDICTI (WEBSTER)

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) bioaccumulation by the polychaet e worm Streblospio benedicti (Webster) was measured under exposure to PAH-contaminated sediments in the field and for 28 d in the laboratory . Streblospio benedicti collected from field sediments contaminated at 2.94, 1.07, and 1.52 mu g g(-1) fluoranthene (FLU), benz[a]anthracene (BAA), and benzo[a]pyrene (BAP), bioaccumulated those PAHs at 1.53, 0 .215, and 0.332 mu g g(-1), while worms isolated from less contaminate d field sediments (0.399, 0.228, 0.288 mu g g(-1) FLU, BAA, and BAP) h ad FLU, BAA, and BAP body burdens of 0.543, 0.236, and 0.083 mu g g(-1 ). Worms incubated for 28 d in PAM-spiked sediments (1.52, 0.991, 0.50 4 mu g g(-1) FLU, BAA, and BAP) bioaccumulated those PAHs at 0.382, 0. 966, and 0.602 mu g g(-1), respectively. Data normalization to organis m lipid and sediment organic carbon (biota-sediment accumulation facto rs [BSAFs] strongly suggest that Streblospio PAH bioaccumulation was d irectly related to percent sediment organic carbon, but BSAFs were sub stantially lower than predicted by equilibrium partitioning theory. BS AFs decreased with increasing PAH log K-ow in worms collected from fie ld sediments, but in spiked sediments BSAFs increased with increasing PAH hydrophobicity. This disparity may have been caused by insufficien t spiked-sediment equilibration time (1.5 h) in the case of the labora tory test sediments. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserve d.