Résumé
This study assessed the use of the European amphipod Corophium multisetosum Stock [Stock, J.H., 1952. Some notes on the taxonomy, the distribution and the ecology of four species of the genus Corophium (Crustacea, Malacostraca). Beaufortia 21, 1-10] in estuarine sediment acute toxicity testing. The sensitivity of adults to the reference toxicant CdCl(2) was determined in water-only 96 h exposures in salinity 2. LC(50) values ranged from 0.33mgCd(2+)L(-1) at 22 degrees C to 0.57mgCd(2+)L(-1) at 15 degrees C. Adult survival was studied in control sediment with water salinity from 0 to 36 and with fine particles content (<63 microm) from 2% to 97% of total sediment, dry weight. Experiments were conducted at 15, 18 and 22 degrees C and the results indicate that the species can be used under the full salinity range although higher mortality was observed at the lower salinity in the higher water temperature, and at the higher salinity in the lower water temperature. The species also tolerated the studied range of sediment fines content and showed the highest sensitivity at intermediate values of fines, especially at the higher temperature, thus advising that tests which have to accommodate sediments with a wide range in fines content should preferably be conducted at 15 degrees C rather than at 22 degrees C. The response in natural sediments was studied in samples collected yearly from 1997 to 2006, at a site located off the Tagus Estuary, western Portugal. A major flood event in winter 2000-2001 induced detectable alterations in sediment baseline descriptors (grain-size, redox potential and total volatile solids), organic contaminants (PAHs, PCBs, DDT metabolites and gamma-HCH) and the macrofauna benthic community. Mortality of the amphipod diminished significantly from the before to the after flood period, in close agreement with diminishing sediment contamination and increasing benthic fauna diversity, in the same time period. C. multisetosum is suitable to conduct acute sediment toxicity tests and presents good potential for the development of a full life-cycle sediment test, due to its amenability to laboratory culture and high survival in the control sediment.