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The World of Protozoa, Rotifera, Nematoda and Oligochaeta

Ref ID : 7044

Torgny Wiederholm; Bulk Sediment Bioassays with Five Species of Fresh-water Oligochaetes. Water,Air,and Soil Pollution 36:131-154, 1987

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A semistatic test procedure was developed to measure the toxicity of contaminated sediments. Tubifex tubifex, Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri, L. udekemianus, L. claparedeanus, Potamothrix hammoniensis were cultured in unpolluted and variously polluted lake sediments for 0.5 to 1.5 yr at ca. 20 degrees C with and without additions of food. Growth and reproduction were generally affected earlier than survival in sediments polluted by heavy metals. The worms were generally much more sensitive to pollutants in sediments from oligotrophic to mesotrophic lakes than in those from eutrophic lakes. Addition of food weakened the response to pollutants.