Morales-Caselles Carmen, Lewis Ceri, Riba Inmaculada, Delvalls T Angel, Galloway Tamara
Instituto de Ciencias Marinas de Andalucía (ICMAN-CSIC), UNESCO UNITWIN/WiCop., Avda. República Saharaui s/n, 11510-Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2009 Sep;16(6):618-29. doi: 10.1007/s11356-009-0139-z. Epub 2009 Mar 31.
BACKGROUND, AIM AND SCOPE: Marine and coastal sediments can accumulate substantial concentrations of metals and hydrocarbons, yet the consequences of this contamination for exposed biota in situ can be difficult to establish. Here, we examine the hypothesis that exposure to contaminated sediments can lead to detrimental effects in sediment-dwelling species. The combination of chemical and biological assessment allows the identification of the impact of chemical contamination, and their use as assessment tools is becoming increasingly important.
The study was applied to marine sediments from the Bay of Algeciras (S Spain) impacted by multiple, low-level contaminant inputs, and the Galician Coast (NW Spain), historically impacted by an oil spill (Prestige 2002), with two reference sites selected in UK and Spain. The common lugworm Arenicola marina was exposed in the laboratory for 14 days to the marine sediments, and a suite of biomarkers of sublethal toxicity was combined with analytical chemistry to test for relationships between sediment contamination and effect.
Moderate to strong correlations between organics, metals, and biological responses were observed, with DNA damage as measured using the Comet assay forming the largest contribution toward the observed differences (p < 0.05). The responses of worms from sites experiencing different contamination loads were clearly distinguishable.
We show how a combination of multibiomarkers with analytical chemistry can be used to investigate the toxicity of marine sediments, enabling the differentiation of sites showing different types of contamination. There are clear relationships in sublethal assays that can be related to the putative mode of toxicity of the contaminants.
The use of A. marina in this way provides a sensitive, holistic approach to sediment toxicity assessment, enabling comparisons between oil-polluted sites to be quantified.
These tools provide a relatively simple, rapid, and economic way to test the environmental status of oil-contaminated sediment.
背景、目的与范围：海洋和沿海沉积物会累积大量金属和碳氢化合物，然而这种污染对原位暴露生物群的影响却难以确定。在此，我们检验了一个假设，即接触受污染沉积物会对栖息于沉积物中的物种产生有害影响。化学和生物学评估相结合有助于确定化学污染的影响，将它们用作评估工具正变得越来越重要。
该研究应用于受多种低水平污染物输入影响的阿尔赫西拉斯湾（西班牙南部）以及历史上受漏油事件（2002年“威望号”漏油事故）影响的加利西亚海岸（西班牙西北部）的海洋沉积物，在英国和西班牙选择了两个参考地点。将常见的沙蠋（海蚯蚓）在实验室中暴露于海洋沉积物14天，一组亚致死毒性生物标志物与分析化学相结合，以测试沉积物污染与效应之间的关系。
观察到有机物、金属与生物学反应之间存在中度至强相关性，使用彗星试验测量的DNA损伤对观察到的差异贡献最大（p < 0.05）。来自不同污染负荷地点的蠕虫的反应明显可区分。
我们展示了如何将多种生物标志物与分析化学相结合来研究海洋沉积物的毒性，从而能够区分显示不同类型污染的地点。在亚致死试验中存在明确的关系，这些关系可与污染物假定的毒性模式相关联。
以这种方式使用海蚯蚓为沉积物毒性评估提供了一种敏感、全面的方法，能够对油污污染地点之间的比较进行量化。
这些工具提供了一种相对简单、快速且经济的方法来测试油污沉积物的环境状况。
