{"title":"Insights into In Situ Benthic Caging Tests for Ecotoxicity Assessments Targeting Discharging Groundwater Contaminant Plumes","authors":"J. W. Roy, L. Grapentine","doi":"10.1007/s00244-024-01075-9","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>While in situ toxicity testing with caged organisms has been used to assess surface water and sediment contamination, no successful application to benthic organisms exposed to highly contaminated groundwater plumes discharging to surface waters has been reported. The objective of this study was to demonstrate and evaluate this application using four sets of tests performed at three previously reported contaminated groundwater sites, which include one river site affected by volatile organic contaminant plumes, and two sites, one pond and one small urban stream, impacted by landfill plumes. The study examined multiple cage designs and orientations and two test organisms: an amphipod (<i>Hyalella azteca</i>) and midge larvae (<i>Chironomus riparius</i>; only one study). Cages were deployed for between 5 and 28 days and assessed for organism survival and growth. At all sites and for some deployment conditions, cages exposed to high contaminant concentrations in the plume footprint had greater mortality compared to those exposed to lower or background concentrations. Organism growth was less clear as a metric of toxicity. Vertically oriented cages typically showed high mortality to plume contaminants, but some were also affected by other non-target groundwater conditions (e.g., low dissolved oxygen, other contaminant sources), while horizontally oriented cages were rarely responsive to either groundwater influence. A hybrid cage design showed much promise in its single study. Useful observations on the test organisms and on potentially problematic site conditions were also made. The informed use of in situ toxicity cages could be an additional beneficial tool for groundwater contaminated site assessments.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8377,"journal":{"name":"Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology","volume":"87 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11283422/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00244-024-01075-9","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
While in situ toxicity testing with caged organisms has been used to assess surface water and sediment contamination, no successful application to benthic organisms exposed to highly contaminated groundwater plumes discharging to surface waters has been reported. The objective of this study was to demonstrate and evaluate this application using four sets of tests performed at three previously reported contaminated groundwater sites, which include one river site affected by volatile organic contaminant plumes, and two sites, one pond and one small urban stream, impacted by landfill plumes. The study examined multiple cage designs and orientations and two test organisms: an amphipod (Hyalella azteca) and midge larvae (Chironomus riparius; only one study). Cages were deployed for between 5 and 28 days and assessed for organism survival and growth. At all sites and for some deployment conditions, cages exposed to high contaminant concentrations in the plume footprint had greater mortality compared to those exposed to lower or background concentrations. Organism growth was less clear as a metric of toxicity. Vertically oriented cages typically showed high mortality to plume contaminants, but some were also affected by other non-target groundwater conditions (e.g., low dissolved oxygen, other contaminant sources), while horizontally oriented cages were rarely responsive to either groundwater influence. A hybrid cage design showed much promise in its single study. Useful observations on the test organisms and on potentially problematic site conditions were also made. The informed use of in situ toxicity cages could be an additional beneficial tool for groundwater contaminated site assessments.
期刊介绍:
Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology provides a place for the publication of timely, detailed, and definitive scientific studies pertaining to the source, transport, fate and / or effects of contaminants in the environment. The journal will consider submissions dealing with new analytical and toxicological techniques that advance our understanding of the source, transport, fate and / or effects of contaminants in the environment. AECT will now consider mini-reviews (where length including references is less than 5,000 words), which highlight case studies, a geographic topic of interest, or a timely subject of debate. AECT will also consider Special Issues on subjects of broad interest. The journal strongly encourages authors to ensure that their submission places a strong emphasis on ecosystem processes; submissions limited to technical aspects of such areas as toxicity testing for single chemicals, wastewater effluent characterization, human occupation exposure, or agricultural phytotoxicity are unlikely to be considered.