Use of the amphipod crustacean Gammarus gauthieri Pinkster in freshwater sediment toxicity tests

The organisms selected for the toxicity tests of sediments must be sensitive to toxicants and tolerant to natural sediment characteristics. In this study, lethal sediment toxicity has been tested with the freshwater amphipod Gammarus gauthieri. Tests were conduo ted with control sediment varying in composition to determine the effects of natural environmental variables to G. gauthieri. The organisms survival was higher than 90 % in the control sediment over 10 days periods; no significant differences were observed among different types of sediments. On the other hand this species was sensitive to the contaminated sediments collected in the Boufekrane river (Morocco), the LC50 10d ranged from 11% to 80%. G. gauthieri appears to be useful for testing the toxicity of freshwater sediments.