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(02-07) A new whole sediment bioassay with the freshwater mudsnail Potamopyrgus antipodarum (Gastropoda: Prosobranchia). Duft, Martina*,1, Schulte-Oehlmann, Ulrike2, Tillmann, Michaela1, Markert, Bernd1, Oehlmann, Joerg2, 1 International Graduate School Zittau, Ecotoxicology, Markt 23, Zittau, Germany2 J.-W.-Goethe University Frankfurt, Ecotoxicology, Siesmayerstrasse 70, Frankfurt/Main, Germany ABSTRACT- At present, only few organismic biotest systems are available as tools for the assessment of adverse effects on the reproduction in whole sediment exposure. A very well suited test organism is the parthenogenetic freshwater mudsnail Potamopyrgus antipodarum. This ovoviviparous prosobranch snail lives in the upper layers of freshwater and brackish sediments. The number of (young and unshelled) embryos in the brood pouch turned out to be a very sensitive parameter for the indication of toxic sediment components that affect the reproduction. Additionally, this endpoint allows to signal an estrogenic potential of sediment compounds. With this 28-day bioassay, we tested the effects of various chemicals (e. g. triphenyltin as xeno-androgen and bisphenol A as xeno-estrogen) on P. antipodarum in environmentally relevant concentration ranges in the laboratory. Besides, the influence of abiotic parameters (organic carbon content, salinity, temperature) on the toxicological endpoints was studied. Furthermore, the suitability of our test system for the investigation of complex contaminations was examined by means of various real sediment samples from large German rivers (Elbe, Neisse and Odra) of different degrees of contamination. Key words: bioassay, sediment, Potamopyrgus antipodarum, prosobranch snails |
