Application of a new integrated sediment quality assessment method to Huelva estuary and its littoral of influence (Southwestern Spain)

A new integrated sediment quality assessment method composed of several assays (particle size profile, total metal content, protease K extraction, total organic carbon, toxicity bioassay with Photobacterium phosphoreum and macrobenthic community alteration) that provides a single result, the environ...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Rosado Alcarria, Daniel, Usero García, José, Morillo Aguado, José
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2015
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/163231
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/163231
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.07.008
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Integrated sediment quality assessment
Trace metals
Bioavailability
Sediment toxicity
Macrobenthic community
Huelva estuary
Descripción
Sumario:A new integrated sediment quality assessment method composed of several assays (particle size profile, total metal content, protease K extraction, total organic carbon, toxicity bioassay with Photobacterium phosphoreum and macrobenthic community alteration) that provides a single result, the environmental degradation index (EDI), has been developed. The new method was tested on the Huelva estuary (southwest of Spain), a highly polluted area where metals dissolved in the water of the Tinto and Odiel rivers precipitate after flowing through the Iberian Pyrite Belt, one of the largest metallogenic areas of massive sulphide deposits in the world. The proposed method satisfactorily was able to reflect different degrees of pollution on the environmental degradation index. Thus, EDI categorized littoral samples as slightly degraded and all the Tinto and some of the Odiel as very highly degraded, emphasizing the lower zone of the Tinto estuary as the most deeply degraded of the entire study area.