Journal article
Effects of Lumbriculus variegatus (Annelida, Oligochaete) bioturbation on zinc sediment chemistry and toxicity to the epi-benthic invertebrate Chironomus tepperi (Diptera: Chironomidae)
V Colombo, VJ Pettigrove, AA Hoffmann, LA Golding
Environmental Pollution | ELSEVIER SCI LTD | Published : 2016
Abstract
Classical laboratory-based single-species sediment bioassays do not account for modifications to toxicity from bioturbation by benthic organisms which may impact predictions of contaminated sediment risk to biota in the field. This study aims to determine the effects of bioturbation on the toxicity of zinc measured in a standard laboratory bioassay conducted with chironomid larvae (Chironomus tepperi). The epi-benthic chironomid larvae were exposed to two different levels of sediment contamination (1600 and 1980 mg/kg of dry weight zinc) in the presence or absence of annelid worms (Lumbriculus variegatus) which are known to be tolerant to metal and to have a large impact on sediment properti..
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Funding Acknowledgements
Funding for this research was provided by Melbourne Water Corporation, the Victorian Department of Business and Innovation through support of the Centre for Aquatic Pollution Identification and Management, and the Australian Research Council through their Fellowship scheme. Chemical analyses of overlying water, pore water and sediment were carried out by ALS Group, Environmental Division Melbourne and Sydney, and by CSIRO Land and Water (Lucas Heights, NSW). Thank you to: Sandra Lagauzere for providing valuable suggestions on the methodology; Sara Long (CAPIM) for providing acute, water-only, ammonia toxicity data to C. tepperi; Mark Stevens (NSW Department of Primary Industries) for the original supply of C. tepperi eggs. We are thankful to the two anonymous reviewers whose constructive comments and suggestions greatly improved this manuscript.