Burgess R M, McKinney R A
Atlantic Ecology Division, NHEERL, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 27 Tarzwell Drive, Narragansett, Rhode Island 02882, USA.
Arch Environ Contam Toxicol. 1997 Aug;33(2):125-9. doi: 10.1007/s002449900233.
Sediment homogenization is a common practice in many contaminated sediment toxicity testing and chemical analysis protocols. A primary goal of sediment homogenization is to reduce inter-replicate variability. In this study, the geochemical effects of sediment homogenization were evaluated by measuring the concentration and distribution of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in environmentally contaminated marine sediment interstitial waters. Sediment homogenization, prior to isolation of interstitial waters, was found to significantly increase the concentration of PCBs in the dissolved and colloidal phases-generally by a factor of two. Long-term storage (i.e., several months) of sediments following mixing appeared to allow interstitial water distributions of PCBs to return to "normal," although a storage artifact may also be present. This study indicates that homogenization results in significant changes in the concentration of PCBs in environmentally contaminated sediment interstitial waters. Consequences of these changes on inferences made based on toxicity tests or chemical analyses using homogenized sediments need to be considered and studied further.
沉积物均质化是许多受污染沉积物毒性测试和化学分析方案中的常见做法。沉积物均质化的一个主要目标是减少重复样本间的变异性。在本研究中，通过测量受环境污染的海洋沉积物间隙水中多氯联苯（PCBs）的浓度和分布，评估了沉积物均质化的地球化学效应。发现在分离间隙水之前进行沉积物均质化会显著增加溶解相和胶体相中多氯联苯的浓度，通常增加两倍。混合后沉积物的长期储存（即几个月）似乎能使多氯联苯在间隙水中的分布恢复到“正常”状态，不过可能也存在储存假象。本研究表明，均质化会导致受环境污染的沉积物间隙水中多氯联苯浓度发生显著变化。需要进一步考虑和研究这些变化对使用均质化沉积物进行的毒性测试或化学分析所得推断的影响。
