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Laboratory and In situ Selenium Bioaccumulation Assessment in the Benthic Macroinvertebrates Hyalella azteca and Chironomus dilutus

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Abstract

Selenium (Se) bioaccumulation and toxicity in aquatic vertebrates have been thoroughly investigated. Limited information is available on Se bioaccumulation at the base of aquatic food webs. In this study, we evaluated Se bioaccumulation in two benthic macroinvertebrates (BMI), Hyalella azteca and Chironomus dilutus raised in the laboratory and caged in-situ to a Canadian boreal lake e (i.e., McClean Lake) that receives continuous low-level inputs of Se (< 1 μg/L) from a uranium mill. Additional Se bioaccumulation assays were conducted in the laboratory with these BMI to (i) confirm field results, (ii) compare Se bioaccumulation in lab-read and native H. azteca populations and (iii) identify the major Se exposure pathway (surface water, top 1 cm and top 2–3 cm sediment layers) leading to Se bioaccumulation in H. azteca. Field and laboratory studies indicated overall comparable Se bioaccumulation and trophic transfer factors (TTFs) in co-exposed H. azteca (whole-body Se 0.9–3.1 µg/g d.w; TTFs 0.6–6.3) and C. dilutus (whole-body Se at 0.7–3.2 µg Se/g d.w.; TTFs 0.7–3.4). Native and lab-reared H. azteca populations exposed to sediment and periphyton from McClean Lake exhibited similar Se uptake and bioaccumulation (NLR, p = 0.003; 4.1 ± 0.8 µg Se/g d.w), demonstrating that lab-reared organisms are good surrogates to assess on-site Se bioaccumulation potential. The greater Se concentrations in H. azteca exposed to the top 1–3 cm sediment layer relative to waterborne exposure, corroborates the importance of the sediment-detrital pathway leading to greater Se bioaccumulation potential to higher trophic levels via BMI.

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Data Availability

Data are available upon request from maira.mendes@usask.ca.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Orano for allowing us to work at the McClean Lake site and for their invaluable on-site and logistical assistance. We also thank Dr. Xia Liu for conducting total selenium analysis in water, sediment, and biological samples for this study.

Funding

This project was funded by a Dean’s Scholarship from the University of Saskatchewan, the Global Water Futures (GWF) program, and Orano Canada.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Saskatchewan Toxicology Center, Saskatoon, Canada

    Maíra Peixoto Mendes, Beatriz Cupe Flores & Karsten Liber

  2. University of Saskatchewan School of Environment and Sustainability, Saskatoon, Canada

    Karsten Liber

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  1. Maíra Peixoto Mendes
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  2. Beatriz Cupe Flores
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  3. Karsten Liber
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Contributions

Maira P. Mendes was contributed to investigation, methodology, formal analysis, data curation, writing—original draft. Beatriz Cupe-Flores was contributed to investigation, methodology, data curation. Karsten Liber was contributed to conceptualization; methodology; resources; investigation; supervision; writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Karsten Liber.

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Peixoto Mendes, M., Flores, B.C. & Liber, K. Laboratory and In situ Selenium Bioaccumulation Assessment in the Benthic Macroinvertebrates Hyalella azteca and Chironomus dilutus. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 86, 249–261 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-024-01056-y

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