It has been hypothesized that ingestion of microplastic increases exposure of aquatic organisms to hydrophobic contaminants. To date, most laboratory studies investigated chemical transfer from ingested microplastic without taking other exposure pathways into account. Therefore, we studied the effect of polyethylene (PE) microplastic in sediment on PCB uptake by Arenicola marina as a model spec...

Evaluating the degree of metal exposure and bioaccumulation in estuarine organisms is important for understanding the fate of metals in estuarine food webs. We investigated the bioaccumulation of Hg, methylmercury (MeHg), Cd, Se, Pb, and As in common intertidal organisms across a watershed urbanization gradient of coastal marsh sites in New England to relate metal exposure and bioaccumulation i...

Bioaccumulation of metals in an endemic ocypodid burrowing mud crab, Paratylodiplax blephariskios, was investigated contaminated mudflats the subtropical Richards Bay Harbour (RBH), South Africa. Following sampling water, sediment and crabs from three sites (Bhizolo, Mzingazi Coal Terminal) RBH during 2016/2017, tissue samples were oven dried for 48 hours, weighed digested advanced microwave di...

Cadmium (Cd) and zinc (Zn) in surface water, sediment, carp, and crab samples collected from upstream and downstream regions of coastal watersheds along the Chinese Northern Bohai and Yellow Seas were analyzed to provide a comprehensive understanding and assessment of their environmental concentrations and bioaccumulations. The results showed that downstream waters contaminated with Zn would ha...

Background: Present study was conducted to measure the level of total mercury (tHg) in sediments, benthos and benthivorous fish (i.e., common carp) for determining Biota (Benthos)-Sediment Accumulation Factor (BSAF), as well as Biomagnification Factor (BMF) of tHg between two trophic levels of benthos and benthivorous fish caught from Sanandaj Gheshlagh Reservoir (SGR) in the west of Iran. Met...

Sediments in the Saginaw Bay region of the Great Lakes contain concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that may adversely affect biotic species in various trophic levels. In this study we collected and analyzed sediments, benthic invertebrates, tree swallow eggs, and nestlings to evaluate linkages between PCBs in sediments and at various trophic levels in the Saginaw River, Michigan,...

Bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) and biota-sediment accumulation factors (BSAFs) are frequently used to predict contaminant bioaccumulation in risk assessments. Development of these parameters is often hindered by uncertainty regarding the spatial scale of contaminant transfer from sediments to biota. We present a simple statistical method for optimizing bioaccumulation parameters (BAF and BSAF) ...

A series of modeling simulations was performed to evaluate the underlying factors and principles that drive the uncertainty in measured bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) and biota-sediment accumulation factors (BSAFs) for fish, and to determine which sampling designs minimize those uncertainties. Temporal variability of chemical concentrations in the water column, and the metabolism rate and n-oct...

This study is an attempt to evaluate the biomonitoring capabilities of rock oyster, Saccostrea cucullata, for mercury (Hg) pollution. The oyster and sediment samples were collected from 10 rocky habitats of Qeshm and Hormoz Islands in the Persian Gulf. The concentration of mercury in the shell and soft tissues of the oysters and sediments were analyzed using an advanced mercury analyzer. Biot...

Total metal concentrations in surface sediments and historically contaminated sediments were determined in sediment cores collected from three estuaries (Thames, Medway and Blackwater) in south-east England. The partitioning behaviour of metals in these sediments was also determined using a sequential extraction scheme. These data were then compared with sediment quality values (SQVs) to determ...