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Setting sediment quality guidelines: a simple yet effective method.

Anders Bjørgesaeter1, John S Gray

  • 1Marine Biodiversity Research Program, Department of Biology, University of Oslo, P.B. 1066 Blindern, 0316 Oslo, Norway. anders.bjorgeseter@bio.uio.no

Marine Pollution Bulletin
|June 3, 2008
PubMed
Summary
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Developing sediment quality guidelines (SQGs) is challenging. This study found current SQGs are too high, suggesting a 4x background concentration offers sufficient protection for marine fauna from metal contamination.

Area of Science:

  • Marine Ecotoxicology
  • Environmental Chemistry
  • Benthic Ecology

Background:

  • Establishing sediment quality guidelines (SQGs) for marine environments presents significant challenges, balancing reproducibility with ecological relevance.
  • A key ecotoxicological question involves identifying appropriate metrics to detect ecosystem responses to anthropogenic disturbances.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To estimate threshold levels that cause effects on soft-bottom macrobenthos in marine sediments.
  • To evaluate these thresholds against naturally occurring contaminant levels under reference conditions.
  • To propose revised SQGs for metal contamination in marine sediments.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized field data from the Norwegian Continental Shelf, encompassing diverse sediment types and depths.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Employed multivariate analyses on 121 environmental gradients (including Ba, THC, Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn) and data from over 2000 species.
  • Assessed community responses in relation to contaminant loadings and natural background concentrations.

    • Main Results:

    • Identified clear community shifts linked to contamination in 35% of the analyzed gradients.
    • Observed substantial variability in natural contaminant concentrations and effect thresholds across different sediment types and depths.
    • Noted that a 100m increase in depth can triple copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) concentrations eliciting effects, with lowest levels in shallow, sandy sediments.

    Conclusions:

    • Current SQGs for marine sediments may be set too high.
    • A proposed SQG of 4 times background metal concentrations is hypothesized to provide adequate protection for benthic fauna.
    • The study identified an overall background concentration of 3.6x that elicits effects on metals.