Marine Whole Sediment Toxicity Tests for Use in Temperate and Tropical Australian Environments: Current Status

Sediments have long been recognised as a source of contaminants in marine environments and, as a result, interim sediment quality guidelines were included in the ANZECC/ARMCANZ (2000) water quality guidelines. While toxicity tests with benthic temperate species have been developed and incorporated into marine sediment toxicity assessments over the past 10 years, there has been limited test development with benthic tropical species. This paper reviews the current status of whole sediment toxicity tests in Australia for tropical and temperate marine ecosystems and highlights (i) the lack of whole sediment toxicity tests available for generating sediment toxicity data for tropical ecosystems, (ii) the lack of chronic whole sediment tests and sensitivity data for temperate or tropical benthic species, and (iii) important factors to consider when selecting relevant tropical test species for toxicity test development. Further development of whole sediment tests should focus on ecologically relevant species, chronic endpoints and the use of appropriate sediment spiking procedures to determine test sensitivity to contaminants. These tests will provide an additional line of evidence for use in sediment assessments and enable the derivation of improved cause-effect based sediment quality guidelines for both tropical and temperate ecosystems.