Efficiency of sediment quality guidelines for predicting toxicity: the case of the St. Lawrence River.

Multitiered frameworks that are designed for risk assessment of contaminated sediment rely on sediment quality guidelines (SQGs) at the first tier or screening level. In the case of contamination by multiple pollutants, results can be aggregated under indices such as the mean quotient. A decision is then reached (e.

Relationships among total recoverable and reactive metals and metalloid in St. Lawrence River sediment: bioaccumulation by chironomids and implications for ecological risk assessment.

The availability and bioaccumulation of metals and metalloids, and the geochemical interactions among them, are essential to developing an ecological risk assessment (ERA) framework and determining threshold concentrations for these elements. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among total recoverable and reactive metals and metalloid in sediment and their bioaccumulation by chironomids. In the fall of 2004 and 2005, 58 stations located in the three fluvial lakes of the St.