Na. Davies et al., Influence of particle surfaces ton the bioavailability to different species of 2,4-dichlorophenol and pentachlorophenol, ENV SCI TEC, 33(14), 1999, pp. 2465-2468
Citations number
15
Categorie Soggetti
Environment/Ecology,"Environmental Engineering & Energy
Studies on the bioavailability of contaminants that accumulate in sediments
have been complicated by the chemical and structural variability of substr
ates and by the different biological properties of test organisms that are
used by regulators. The purpose of this work was to overcome some of these
difficulties by devising a test system that used artificial particles with
known chemical surfaces. These were coated with 2,4-dichlorophenol or penta
chlorophenol and fed to oligochete worms (Lumbriculus variegatus) and midge
larvae (Chironimus riparius). The adsorption coefficient (Kd) Of the parti
cle surface was compared with the concentration of contaminant accumulated
by the test organisms. There were major differences in bioaccumulation betw
een the two species used despite identical particles and pollutants. This c
learly reflects differences in the uptake and detoxification pathways betwe
en species. The particle surface and its interaction with the chlorophenols
was a major factor in the accumulation of the contaminants in an organism.
The techniques that are described provide a way of standardizing results b
etween different natural sediments and different test organisms and provide
some insights into the processes involved in bioaccumulation from particle
surfaces.