Toxicity associated with sediments from Malaysian estuarine environment

With the rapid industrialization in the region marine pollution assessment in South East Asia is an ongoing and increasingly important environmental science. One of the areas of concern being sediment toxicology, for it has been identified to be a sink for most pollutants entering the aquatic environment. Owing to the scarcity of information on sediment toxicity bioassays, there is a need to identify species as test organisms for this region.;For the purposes of this study, an effects based approach known as Sediment Quality Triad was employed, where three components of environmental concern, namely sediment chemistry, sediment bioassays and benthic fauna alterations were investigated at a chosen location. The study area was a portion of coastline in Peninsula Malaysia with three estuaries, two of which, Sg. Juru and Sg. Perai, have been identified as receiving pollutants from the rivers feeding them. The third, Sg. Tambun, was included for comparison purposes. A reference location of minimal or insignificant contamination and reference sediment from a test organism collection site were also tested to obtain background or reference contamination values. Emphasis was placed on the bioassay portion of the triad to observe the applicability of local test animals to obtain reliable data from established toxicity tests and protocols. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...