PARENT SESSION
HA4 Pollution control and management in the Mediterranean Sea
9:00 AM to 1:30 PM, Thursday, 10 May 2001
Session Chair:
Room 4

(450) Integrate Ecotoxicological Assessment of the Marine Contamination on the Portman Bay (Southeast-Spain).

Cesar, Augusto^1,2, Marín, Lázaro¹, Vita, Rubén¹, Marín, Arnaldo¹, Rodrigez, Carmen³, ^{1 2 3}

ABSTRACT- Sediment quality is fundamentally important to the health of marine environment, because sediments are a primary repository for contaminants and thus are a primary source of contaminant input into aquatic food webs. Infaunal amphipods and sea-urchins are excellent organisms for toxicity tests and are recommended as appropriate test species for acute and short-term chronic toxicity tests in marine and estuarine waters. Sediment in Portman bay (Murcia, SE of Spain) has accumulated large amounts of heavy metals due to historical mining activity. Sampling points were deployed in space over a depth gradient, ranging from 8 to 80-m. At each station four replicates were taken with a box core, removing the top 2-cm for the analyses. Sediment was collected synoptically for both physico-chemical, toxicity and benthonic community analyses. Whole-sediment toxicity tests were performed with two amphipod species, Gammarus aequicauda and Microdeutopus gryllotalpa. Sediment, elutriate and intersticial water toxicity tests were performed with three sea-urchins species, Arbacia lixula, Paracentrotus lividus and Sphaerechinus granularis. The sensitivity of these marine organisms was evaluated by exposure tests using the reference substances: ammonium chloride (CINH₄), potassium dichromate (K₂Cr₂O₇), sodium dodecyl sulfate (C₁₂H₂₅NaO₄S) and zinc sulfate (ZnSO₄). Static 10-d amphipods toxicity tests were employed for evaluate the acute toxicity of sediment while Microtox^® system (Vibrio fischeri), was used for interstitial water. Sea-urchins short-term chronic toxicity tests with (sediment, elutriate and pore-water) were assessed by embryo-larval development test method. Toxicity tests with bacteria, amphipods and sea-urchins display an evident toxicity in all sampling, but the toxicity was higher in shallow points, around to the old mining emissary.

Key words: Amphipods, Sea urchins, Bacteria, Toxicity Tests