Effects of diesel and interactions with copper and other metals in an estuarine sediment microbial community.

Estuarine sediment microcosms were treated with combinations of diesel, copper (at two levels), and a mixture of heavy metals (mercury, cadmium, lead, and chromium; at two levels) mimicking the contaminant loadings found in harbor sediments. The effects on the microbial community were monitored by polar lipid fatty acid analysis. Diesel addition increased microbial biomass, caused shifts in some fatty acid structural groups, and decreased starvation biomarkers.

Mixtures of metals and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons elicit complex, nonadditive toxicological interactions in meiobenthic copepods.

The acute toxicity of metal-polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) mixtures (i.e., Cd, Hg, Pb, fluoranthene, and phenanthrene) associated with sediments was assessed in two benthic copepods.