G.3 TIER III - Terrestrial Animal Bioaccumulation Test

Cs = concentration of nonpolar organic chemical in the dredged

material or reference sediment (any units of concentration may

be used)

BSAF = 4 (Ankley et al. 1992)

%TOC = total organic carbon content of the dredged material or reference

sediment expressed as a decimal fraction (i.e., 2% = 0.02)

%L = organism lipid content expressed as a decimal fraction

(i.e., 3% = 0.03) of whole-body wet weight.

G.3 TIER III - Terrestrial Animal Bioaccumulation

Test

Unless adverse conditions exist (excessively low pH, excessively high

salinity, contaminant toxicity, etc.), animals and plants will colonize dredged

material that has dewatered. Dredged material in a terrestrial habitat condition is

subject to physicochemical changes over time that will affect availability of

contaminants from animals to plants and from plants to animals.

G.3.1 Terrestrial species selection

In the Tier III animal bioaccumulation test, the concentration of contaminant

of concern (COC) in the tissues of a soil invertebrate (earthworm) living in the

dredged material is compared to the concentration of COC in earthworms living

in the reference material. The procedure to evaluate bioaccumulation of all

COC is presented below. This test is based on the bioaccumulation evaluations

developed at WES for the ASTM Standard Procedure E 1676-97 (ASTM 1997).

The earthworm species Eisenia fetida used in this procedure has been used

successfully as a laboratory test organism in many testing media, including

artificial soil (Neuhauser et al. 1985); contaminated field soils (Stafford and

Edwards 1985, Callahan, Russell, and Peterson 1985); activated sludge

(Hartenstein, Hartenstein, and Hartenstein 1981); sediment (Athey et al. 1989)

and cow manure (Reinecke and Venter 1985).

G.3.1.1 Life history.

The life-cycle of E. fetida can be divided into three distinct phases: (1) the

cocoon phase, consisting of an egg cocoon that can produce from 1 to 11

hatchlings under laboratory conditions (2) the young (immature) phase, during

which the hatchlings grow physically but cannot produce cocoons; and (3) the

adult (mature) phase, which is reached when the worms become capable of

producing cocoons. Adult worms may still grow physically. The life cycle for E.

fetida to vary from a mean of 51.5 days at 25 EC to more than 166 days at 13 EC,

i.e., from freshly deposited cocoon through clitellate worm and deposition of the

Appendix G Animal Bioaccumulation Test Procedures