The identification of readily bioavailable pollutants in lake shkodra/skadar using semipermeable membrane devices (SPMDs), bioassays and chemical analysis

Abstract

The combination of SPMD-based sampling with appropriate bioassays and chemical analysis provided an effective tool for the identification of environmentally relevant waterborne pollutants in Lake Shkodra/Skadar. Our results show that toxicologically relevant HOPs including EROD-inducing and potentially estrogenic compounds are widely distributed in the lake and readily available for uptake by aquatic biota. Our results also suggest that alkylated PAHs rather than parent compounds may be of greater toxicological relevance in the lake. As anthropogenic influences continue to increase, SPMD-based sampling is expected to play a central role in future research concerned with the identification, monitoring and assessment of the risk posed by HOPs to Lake Shkodra/Skadar's aquatic biota.

Water exposure assessment of aryl hydrocarbon receptor agonists in Three Gorges Reservoir, China using SPMD-based virtual organisms

“…Similar phenomenon also occurred in other environmental matrix, for example, Muusse et al (2012) found PAH can only explain up to 9% of the AhR agonist activity in roadside snow samples in Norway. Rastall et al (2004) reported that TEQ PAH were 3 to 4 orders of magnitude lower than the respective TEQ bio in their SPMD samples from a lake in the Balkans. Our recent publication also reported that TEQ cal were 2-10% of TEQ bio in a drinking water reservoir (Wang et al, 2014b).…”

“…Therefore, this device is also referred to as virtual organism (VO) which provides an integrative sampling method for a wide array of bioavailable waterborne HOCs (Schramm et al, 2013). The VO followed by the combination of chemical and biological analyses has been proven to be a resource efficient tool for the exposure assessment of environmentally relevant water borne pollutants in drinking water resources (Rastall et al, 2004;Wang et al, 2014b).…”

Combined chemical and toxicological long-term monitoring for AhR agonists with SPMD-based virtual organisms in drinking water Danjiangkou Reservoir, China

“…Similar phenomenon also occurred in other environmental matrix, for example, Muusse et al (2012) found PAH can only explain up to 9% of the AhR agonist activity in roadside snow samples in Norway. Rastall et al (2004) reported that TEQ PAH were 3-4 orders of magnitude lower than the respective TEQ bio in their SPMD samples from a lake in the Balkans. Due to the complex nature of environmental samples together with limited instrumental support, causative agents of observed bioassay reports are often not identified.…”

“…The combination of the EROD bioassay with chemical analysis has been largely used to evaluate the AhR activity in sediment and soil (Kinani et al, 2010;Shen et al, 2008;Qiao et al, 2006;Hong et al, 2012), and effluents of wastewater treatment plants (Dagnino et al, 2010;Ma et al, 2005;Reungoat et al, 2010). But few references could be available on evaluating AhR activity in surface water (Rastall et al, 2004). Risk assessment for dioxin-like compounds in surface water or drinking water resources is difficult mainly because these compounds are usually low in concentrations, as well as the effects of many endpoints, typically falling below the detection limit.…”

“…The uptake characteristics of SPMD are well defined, and these sampling devices can be used to estimate timeintegrated averages of dissolved contaminants (Booij et al 1998;Huckins et al 2006). The combination of EROD bioassay and chemical analysis with SPMD-based sampling had ever been applied in risk assessment for hydrophobic organic pollutants (HOPs) in Lake Shkodra/Skadar in the Balkans and proved to be an effective tool for the identification of waterborne pollutants in the lake (Rastall et al 2004). However, the results reported in the unit of pg TCDD/SPMD are not comparable to the concentrations of AhR agonists reported in the unit of pg TCDD L À1 in other waters.…”