Determining the Toxicity of Sedimentary Organic Contaminants in the Marine Environment and its implications for Australia

澳大利亚和许多国家一样，采用了沉积物质量准则，规范沿海地区的建筑、废物处理、疏浚、生物资源保护和修复。当前申请人最近的研究表明，这些准则高估了沉积物的毒性，这可能导致不必要的，昂贵的环境调查和可能不必要的，非常昂贵的补救措施。虽然污染物在许多澳大利亚沿海地区浓度极高，但底栖动物可能无法获得（生物可利用）污染物。提出了一种新的技术来确定污染物的生物利用度，提高这些准则的可预测性，确保沿海环境的生态可持续发展。

Australia, like many countries, has adopted sediment quality guidelines, which govern construction, waste disposal, dredging, protection of living resources and remediation in coastal regions. Recent studies by the current applicants indicate that these guidelines overestimate sediment toxicity, which may result in unnecessary, costly environmental investigations and possibly needless, very expensive remediation. Although contaminants are in extremely high concentrations in many Australian coastal areas, they may not be available (bioavailable) to benthic animals. A new technique is proposed to determine contaminant bioavalibility and improve the predictability of these guidelines and ensure the ecological sustainable development of coastal environments.