Influences of Dietary Uptake and Reactive Sulfides on Metal Bioavailability from Aquatic Sediments
Byeong-Gweon Lee,
1*
Sarah B. Griscom,
2
Jung-Suk Lee,
3
Heesun J. Choi,
3
Chul-Hwan Koh,
3
Samuel N. Luoma,
1
Nicholas S. Fisher
2
Understanding how animals are exposed to the large
repository of metal pollutants in aquatic sediments is complicated and is important in regulatory decisions. Experiments with four types of
invertebrates showed that feeding behavior and dietary uptake control
bioaccumulation of cadmium, silver, nickel, and zinc. Metal
concentrations in animal tissue correlated with metal concentrations extracted from sediments, but not with metal in porewater, across a
range of reactive sulfide concentrations, from 0.5 to 30 micromoles per
gram. These results contradict the notion that metal bioavailability in
sediments is controlled by geochemical equilibration of metals between
porewater and reactive sulfides, a proposed basis for regulatory
criteria for metals.
1 U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources
Division, Mail Stop 465, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
2 Marine Sciences Research Center, State
University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.
3 Department of Oceanography, Seoul National
University, Seoul, 151-742, Korea.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
bglee{at}usgs.gov
