Ecotoxicological testing of sediments and dredged material: an overlooked opportunity?
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ADVANCES IN SEDIMENT SCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT
Ecotoxicological testing of sediments and dredged material: an overlooked opportunity? Susanne Heise 1
&
Marc Babut 2 & Carmen Casado 3 & Ute Feiler 4 & Benoit J. D. Ferrari 3 & Laura Marziali 5
Received: 29 March 2020 / Accepted: 4 October 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Purpose Basing decisions for the management of contaminated sediments on ecotoxicological data is still often met with skepticism by European stakeholders. These concerns are discussed as they pertain to bioassays to show how ecotoxicological data may provide added value for the sustainable management of sediment in aquatic systems. Materials and methods Five “concerns” are selected that are often raised by stakeholders. The ecotoxicological practice is discussed in light of the knowledge gained in recent decades and compared with chemical sediment analysis and chemical data. Results and discussion Common assumptions such as a higher uncertainty of biotest results for sediments compared to chemical analyses are not supported by interlaboratory comparisons. Some confusion also arises, because the meaning of biotest data is often misunderstood, questioning their significance in light of a limited number of organisms and altered test conditions in the lab. Because biotest results describe a sediment property, they should not be directly equated with an impact upon the biological community. To identify a hazard, however, the possibility of false-negative results due to the presence of contaminants that are not analyzed but are toxic is lower. Conclusions The cost of increased investment in ecotoxicological tests is, in our view, small compared with that of making falsenegative assessments of sediment/dredged material that can ultimately have long-term environmental costs. As such, we conclude that ecotoxicological testing is an opportunity for sediment management decision-making that warrants more attention and confidence in Europe. Keywords Sediment . Ecotoxicological testing . Bioassays . Stakeholders
1 Introduction Ecotoxicological testing as an approach to assess sediment quality was first described in the late 1970s (e.g., Anderson Responsible editor: Klara Hilscherova * Susanne Heise [email protected] 1
Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Ulmenliet 20, Hamburg D-21033, Germany
2
RiverLy Research Unit, INRAE, 5, avenue de la Doua, F-69625 Villeurbanne, France
3
Swiss Centre for Applied Ecotoxicology (Ecotox Centre), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
4
Federal Institute of Hydrology, Am Mainzer Tor 1, D-56068 Koblenz, Germany
5
CNR-IRSA Water Research Institute, Italian National Research Council, Via del Mulino 19, I-20861 Brugherio, MB, Italy
and Prater 1977; Swartz et al. 1979) and gained interest in the following years. Giesy et al. (1988) have reasoned that chemical analyses of sediments should be complemented by toxicity tests, because the large number of potentially toxic substances would make the assessment of potential biotic impacts time consuming and costly, and ne
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