AbstractThe present study aimed to evaluate the potential for using toxicity assays with sediment samples for the detection of water pollution caused by the discharge of tannery effluents into water bodies and its application to environmental forensic investigation. The study included ecotoxicological evaluation of sediments, survey of benthic organisms in the field, as well as chromium, cadmiu...

Bioassays on sea urchin early life stages have been used extensively in evaluating the pollution impact on seawater, coastal sediments, and other matrices as soil, freshwater sediment, and industry effluents. Here we review the literature in this field to determine whether testing whole sediment vs. pore water or elutriates by sea urchin bioassays provides a better estimation of actual risk. Th...

This work analyses the distribution of living benthic foraminiferal assemblages of surface sediments in different intertidal areas of Ria de Aveiro (Portugal), a polihaline and anthropized coastal lagoon. The relationships among foraminiferal assemblages in association with environmental parameters (temperature, salinity, Eh and pH), grain size, the quantity and quality of organic matter (enric...

The concentrations of seven trace metals (Fe, Mn, Cu, Cr, Co, Pb and Zn) in three sediment cores were analysed to assess the depositional trends of metals and their contamination level in the Mandovi estuary, west coast of India. All sediment cores showed enrichment of trace metals in the upper part of core sediments and decrease in concentration with depth, suggesting excess of anthropogenic l...

Fecal material entrained in New Orleans flood waters was pumped into the local environment. Violet Marsh received water pumped from St. Bernard Parish and the Lower Ninth Ward. Sediment core samples were collected from canals conducting water from these areas to pump stations and from locations within Violet Marsh. Viable indicator bacteria and fecal sterols were used to assess the levels of fe...

We use sediment cores from lakes in Glacier Bay National Park to examine the relationship between successional changes in catchment vegetation and trends in water-column nitrogen (a limiting nutrient) and lake primary production. Terrestrial succession at Glacier Bay follows several different pathways, with older sites in the lower bay being colonized directly by spruce (Picea) and by-passing a...

We use sediment cores from lakes in Glacier Bay National Park to examine the relationship between successional changes in catchment vegetation and trends in water-column nitrogen (a limiting nutrient) and lake primary production. Terrestrial succession at Glacier Bay follows several different pathways, with older sites in the lower bay being colonized directly by spruce (Picea) and by-passing a...

A quantitative framework was developed which estimates mercury methylation rates (MMR) in sediment cores based on measured sulfate reduction rates (SRR) and the community composition sulfate-reducing bacterial consortia. MMR and SRR as well as group-specific 16S rRNA concentrations (as quantified by probe signal) associated with sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) were measured in triplicate cores ...

In this study, 166 surface sediments and 3 sediment cores from the Bohai Sea (BS), Yellow Sea (YS) and East China Sea (ECS) in China were collected to investigate the spatial and temporal distributions and the transport of PFASs. PFASs concentrations in the surface sediments ranged from below detection limit (<LOD) to 2.78 ng g(-1) with an average value of 0.55 ng g(-1) on a dry weight basis (d...