title: An assessment of sediment quality at the streams flowing into Izmir Bay, Aegean Sea, Turkey.
abstract: Due to municipal, industrial and nonpoint source waste discharges to streams and rivers and tendency of many chemicals to become associated with sediments. Sediments are particularly problematic near densely populated and industrialised urban areas, such as the Izmir metropolitan area in west part of Turkey. The aim of this study was to determine the potential adverse effects of sediments from five streams flowing into inner part of Izmir Bay by using sea urchin, Paracentrotus lividus embryotoxicity test and if there was any correlation between toxicity and chemical data. Toxicity tests indicated that with the exception of the smallest concentration of only one stream sediment samples (0.6 mg wet wt. mL(-1)) all sediment samples resulted in significant increases in the frequencies of developmental defects on P. lividus embryos. Analytical data showed that the sediments from five streams had chemical characteristics similar to sediments defined by other authors as polluted sediments. An important point to note was the excellent correlation between total organic carbon content of stream sediments and sea urchin P. lividus embryotoxicity data, but not with metal content.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Fisheries, Ege University, Bornova, 35100-Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Rahime
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Oral
authors.forename: Hatice
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Parlak
authors.forename: Meltem
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boyacioglu
authors.forename: Ozlem Cakal
authors.initials: OC
authors.lastname: Arslan
authors.forename: Filiz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kucuksezgin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019015:Geologic Sediments; D012617:Sea Urchins / Q000187:drug effects; D012623:Seawater; D014421:Turkey; D014873:Water Pollutants / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D014873:Water Pollutants