Evaluation of a rapid biosensor tool for measuring PAH availability in petroleum-impacted sediment

Authors

Jason Conder
Mehregan Jalalizadeh
(...)
Michael A. Unger, Virginia Institute of Marine ScienceFollow

Document Type

Article

Department/Program

Virginia Institute of Marine Science

Publication Date

2021

Journal

Environmental Advances

Volume

3

First Page

100032

Abstract

Decades of research have shown that the concentration of freely dissolved PAH (C_free) in sediment correlates with PAH bioavailability and toxicity to aquatic organisms. Passive sampling techniques and models have been used for measuring and predicting C_free, respectively, but these techniques require weeks for analytical chemical measurements and data evaluation. This study evaluated the performance of a portable, field-deployable antibody-based PAH biosensor method that can provide measurements of PAH C_free within a matter of minutes using a small volume of mechanically-extracted sediment porewater. Four sediments with a wide range of PAHs (ΣPAH 2.4 to 307 mg/kg) derived from petroleum, creosote, and mixed urban sources, were analyzed via three methods: 1) bulk chemistry analysis; 2) ex situ sediment passive sampling; and 3) biosensor analysis of mechanically-extracted sediment porewater. Mean ΣPAH C_free determined by the biosensor for the four sediments (3.1 to 55 µg/L) were within a factor of 1.1 (on average) compared to values determined by the passive samplers (2.0 to 52 µg/L). All mean values differed by a factor of 3 or less. The biosensor was also useful in identifying sediments that are likely to be non-toxic to benthic invertebrates. In two of the four sediments, biosensor results of 20 and 55 µg/L exceeded a potential risk-based screening level of 10 µg/L, indicating toxicity could not be ruled out. PAH Toxic Units (ΣTU) measured in these two sediments using the passive sampler C_free results were also greater than the ΣTU threshold of 1 (6.7 and 5.8, respectively), confirming the conclusions reached with the biosensor. In contrast, the other two sediments were identified as non-toxic by both the biosensor (3.1 and 4.3 µg/L) and the passive sampler (ΣTUs of 0.34 and 0.039). These results indicate that the biosensor is a promising tool for rapid screening of sediments potentially-impacted with PAHs.

DOI

doi: 10.1016/j.envadv.2021.100032

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Conder, Jason; Jalalizadeh, Mehregan; (...); and Unger, Michael A., Evaluation of a rapid biosensor tool for measuring PAH availability in petroleum-impacted sediment (2021). Environmental Advances, 3, 100032.

doi: 10.1016/j.envadv.2021.100032