Bioassay responses to sediment elutriates and multivariate data analysis for hazard assessment of sediment-bound chemicals

  • W. Ahlf
  • S. Wild-Metzko
Conference paper
Part of the Developments in Hydrobiology book series (DIHY, volume 75)

Abstract

A sediment study, involving both chemical and biological analyses, was carried out in the Hamburg harbour area. A total of 71 stations were sampled during 1988 and the sediments extracted using a 1:4 sediment:water ratio either with or without an addition of a water-soluble detergent to solubilize organic compounds. The resulting extracts were applied in algal and bacterial assays to measure toxicity. A principal components analysis showed that no single bioassay explained all the variation in toxicity among the locations studied. Hierarchical cluster analysis was used to rank sediments into four groups based on their toxicity. The relationship of toxic responses to the chemistry of the sediments was determined using varimax factor analysis. One factor was loaded with algal responses and mercury contents of sediments, another with bacterial responses and Lindane contents of sediments.

Key words

acute bioassays sediment contaminants 

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 1992

Authors and Affiliations

  • W. Ahlf
    • 1
  • S. Wild-Metzko
    • 1
  1. 1.Technische Universität Hamburg-HarburgHamburg 90Germany

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