Tóm tắt
Amphipods, Paracorophium excavatum, were exposed for 10
days to copper-spiked sediments in the concentration range 3–84 µg
g –1 dry wt of sediment. Percent emergence was
low, ranging from 0.18% to 2.1%, but increased with
exposure time and with copper concentration. Amphipod mortality increased with
exposure time and sediment copper concentration, following a linear
relationship; the Cu 10-day LC 50 value was 55 µg
g –1 . Mortality was <5% in the
control (natural) sediment containing 3µg
g–1 copper. >85% of surviving
amphipods reburied themselves within 1 h, and therefore this behaviour was not
a good discriminator for potentially toxic sediments. The concentration of
copper within the whole-body tissues of P. excavatum
(µg Cu g –1 ) was mostly independent of dry
body weight within the range 0.12–0.37 mg. Average copper concentrations
within the tissues ranged from 169 to 490 µg Cu g
–1 , with higher variability in amphipods exposed
to sediment copper concentrations of 16 and 32 µg g
–1 . Amphipod tissue copper concentration
increased with sediment copper concentration. It was concluded that
P. excavatum is a suitable indicator species for use in
ecotoxicological tests for potentially toxic marine and estuarine sediments.
