title: Assessment of hazard metrics for predicting field benthic invertebrate toxicity in the Detroit River, Ontario, Canada.
abstract: Numerical sediment quality guidelines (SQGs) are frequently used to interpret site-specific sediment chemistry and predict potential toxicity to benthic communities. These SQGs are useful for a screening line of evidence (LOE) that can be combined with other LOEs in a full weight of evidence (WOE) assessment of impacted sites. Three common multichemical hazard quotient methods (probable effect concentration [PEC]-Qavg, PEC-Qmet, and PEC-Qsum) and a novel (hazard score [HZD]) approach were used in conjunction with a consensus-based set of SQGs to evaluate the ability of different scoring metrics to predict the biological effects of sediment contamination under field conditions. Multivariate analyses were first used to categorize river sediments into distinct habitats based on a set of physicochemical parameters to include gravel, low and high flow sand, and silt. For high flow sand and gravel, no significant dose-response relationships between numerically dominant species and various toxicity metric scores were observed. Significant dose-response relationships were observed for chironomid abundances and toxicity scores in low flow sand and silt habitats. For silt habitats, the HZD scoring metric provided the best predictor of chironomid abundances compared to various PEC-Q methods according to goodness-of-fit tests. For low flow sand habitats, PEC-Qsumfollowed by HZD, provided the best predictors of chironomid abundance. Differences in apparent chironomid toxicity between the 2 habitats suggest habitat-specific differences in chemical bioavailability and indicator taxa sensitivity. Using an IBI method, the HZD, PEC-Qavg, and PEC-Qmetapproaches provided reasonable correlations with calculated IBI values in both silt and low flow sand habitats but not for gravel or high flow sands. Computation differences between the various multi-chemical toxicity scoring metrics and how this contributes to bias in different estimates of chemical mixture toxicity scores are discussed and compared. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2017;13:410-422. © 2016 SETAC.
authors.affiliation: College of Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
authors.forename: Kerry N
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: McPhedran
authors.affiliation: Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grgicak-Mannion
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York, Syracuse, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Gord
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Paterson
authors.affiliation: Ontario Ministry of the Environment, London, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Ted
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Briggs
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Jan Jh
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Ciborowski
authors.affiliation: Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: G Douglas
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Haffner
authors.affiliation: Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Ken G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Drouillard
mesh_terms: D033304:Amphipoda; D000818:Animals; D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry; D007448:Invertebrates / Q000502:physiology*; D009864:Ontario; D045483:Rivers; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000592:standards / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Benthic community impacts; Connecting channel; Hazard score; Sediment quality guidelines (SQGs)