Reducing the effects of total ammonia in 10-day sediment toxicity tests with the amphipod, rhepoxyinius abronius

摘要

Sediment toxicity tests are used to measure the effects of contaminants in sediment and are important management tools for agencies that regulate dredging and dredged material disposal, wastewater discharges, an other activities that might affect the aquatic environment. The interpretation of the results of routine toxicity tests can howevr, be confounded by naturally occurring factors, such as ammonia, sulfides, sediment grain size, and salinity. Ammonia has been suspected for many years to be a sediment toxicant. It is only recently that the sensitivity of rotuine test organisms to ammonia has been quantified, and even more recently that dose-responses have been related to ammonia concentrations that occur in standard sediment toxicity tests under two pore water ammonia reduction procedures.