Use of chironomid deformities in field and laboratory assessments of contaminated sediments

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:367451

Canfield, T J; Kemble, N E; Ingersoll, C G ^[1]

---

1. National Biological Service, Columbia, MO (United States)

Benthic invertebrate samples were collected from 23 pools in the Upper Mississippi River (UMR), the Saint Croix River (SCR), Wisconsin, the Clark Fork River (CFR)/Milltown Reservoir (MR) Superfund Site, Montana, and three Great Lakes rivers classified as Areas of Concern (AOC). Contamination consisted of organic and inorganic contaminants at the UMR and AOC sites, and primarily heavy metals in the CFR/MR sites. Samples were collected with a ponar grab sampler from stations in Indiana Harbor, IN (n = 7), Buffalo River, NY (n = 10), Saginaw River, MI (1989 n = 7; 1990, n = 7), Upper Mississippi River (n = 24), Clark Fork River (n = 6), and Milltown Reservoir (n = 7). Compared to literature values for incidence of deformities in uncontaminated sediments, frequency of chironomid mouthpart deformities was significantly greater at most stations sampled from the AOC sites, with only a few stations sampled from the CFR/MR and UMR sites having significantly greater incidence of mouthpart deformities. Occurrence of mouthpart deformities ranged from 0 to 100% at stations from the AOC`S, 0 to 18% at CFR/MR stations, and 0 to 13% at UMR stations. Sediment contamination was generally lowest in UMR samples and highest in AOC samples. These data show organic contaminants may have a greater potential for causing teratogenic effects in chironomid mouthparts. Frequency of mouthpart deformities in Chironomus riparius laboratory exposures to contaminated sediments from all AOC and CFR sites were evaluated and analysis shows that frequency of mouthpart deformities from laboratory-exposed chironomids are generally lower than those found in field-collected samples. Additional analysis of chironomid laboratory cultures background deformity levels which must be addressed before laboratory evaluations can be used with reliability.

• OSTI ID: 367451
• Report Number(s): CONF-9511137--; ISBN 1-880611-03-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
56 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
APPLIED STUDIES
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
BENTHOS
BIOLOGICAL INDICATORS
CONGENITAL MALFORMATIONS
FIELD TESTS
FLIES
GREAT LAKES
INDIANA
MICHIGAN
MISSISSIPPI RIVER
MONTANA
NEW YORK
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
RIVERS
SEDIMENTS
TERATOGENESIS
WATER POLLUTION
WISCONSIN