USE OF THE AMPHIPOD CRUSTACEAN GAMMARUS-G AUTHIERI PINKSTER IN FRESH-WATER SEDIMENT TOXICITY TESTS

The organisms selected for the toxicity tests of sediments must be sen sitive to toxicants and tolerant to natural sediment characteristics. In this study, lethal sediment toxicity has been tested with the fresh water amphipod Gammarus gauthieri. Tests were conduo ted with control sediment varying in composition to determine the effects of natural en vironmental variables to G. gauthieri. The organisms survival was high er than 90 % in the control sediment over 10 days periods; no signific ant differences were observed among different types of sediments. On t he other hand this species was sensitive to the contaminated sediments collected in the Boufekrane river (Morocco), the LC50 10d ranged from 11% to 80%.G. gauthieri appears to be useful for testing the toxicity of freshwater sediments.