BSAFs for freshwater fish and derivation of a sediment quality guideline for PCBs in the Rhone basin, France

• Published in: Journal of Soils and Sediments
• Main Authors: Babut, Marc, Lopes, Christelle, Pradelle, Sébastien, Persat, Henri, Badot, Pierre-Marie
• Other Authors: Milieux aquatiques, écologie et pollutions (UR MALY), Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA), Modélisation et écotoxicologie prédictives LBBE, Département biostatistiques et modélisation pour la santé et l'environnement LBBE, Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive - UMR 5558 (LBBE), Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-VetAgro Sup - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur et de recherche en alimentation, santé animale, sciences agronomiques et de l'environnement (VAS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-VetAgro Sup - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur et de recherche en alimentation, santé animale, sciences agronomiques et de l'environnement (VAS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive - UMR 5558 (LBBE), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-VetAgro Sup - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur et de recherche en alimentation, santé animale, sciences agronomiques et de l'environnement (VAS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), DREAL Rhone-Alpes, Délégation de Bassin, Équipe 1 - Biodiversité des Écosystèmes Lotiques (BEL), Laboratoire d'Ecologie des Hydrosystèmes Naturels et Anthropisés (LEHNA), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État (ENTPE)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État (ENTPE)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire Chrono-environnement (UMR 6249) (LCE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Franche-Comté (UFC), Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté COMUE (UBFC)-Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté COMUE (UBFC)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2012
• Subjects: BSAF . Fish . PCB . River . Sediment . SQG; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; Rhone; European eel
• Online Access: https://hal.science/halsde-00672529; https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-011-0448-y

[Departement_IRSTEA]Eaux [TR1_IRSTEA]BELCA International audience Purpose Since 2005, freshwater fish contamination by polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs), polychlorodibenzodioxins, and polychlorodibenzofurans has been assessed in the Rhone River basin (France). A large database of surface sediment contamination by PCBs is also available, opening the way to the study of biota-to-sediment accumulation factor (BSAF) distribution throughout this basin. The ultimate goal of the study was to determine a sediment quality guideline (SQG) corresponding to the regulatory fish consumption limit. Materials and methods A bootstrapping procedure for determining BSAFs was applied to a data set matching the available databases of sediment and fish contamination by PCBs in the Rhone River basin. The SQG was obtained by combining the current tissue-based regulatory threshold with a characteristic BSAF value, for a species particularly prone to accumulating these compounds. As the current regulatory threshold refers to dioxins and related com- pounds, while most available sediment data deal with non- dioxin-like PCBs, a set of correlations was used to derive an SQG for the sum of seven indicator PCBs. To assess the reliability of these SQG pairs, actual fish and sediment concentrations were classified into four categories, accord- ing to a comparison with the regulatory threshold for fish data and the calculated SQG. Results and discussion BSAFs were determined for 11 species. The barbel and European eel had the highest BSAFs. The common carp, a benthic species, had surpris- ingly low BSAFs, as low as pelagic and omnivorous species such as chub. The data set was also split into two parts, one comprising fish samples at or above the regulatory limit and the other samples below this threshold. Sediment concentrations and BSAFs were higher in the former group. An SQG was derived on the basis of the 75th percentile of barbel's BSAF, equaling 26.6 ng g−1 dry weight (range 15.6-38.6 ng g−1) for the sum of seven indicator PCBs. When tested ...