ABSTRACT
Conventional sediment toxicity testing, a mainstay of ecological risk assessment (ERA) investigation, is predicated on the reality that contaminants that have entered a waterbody do not linger in the water column but rather take up residence at the waterbody's floor, nestled within its recesses. ERA science is nothing less than enamored with the phenomenon of contaminant sequestration in sediment, and such is evident in the design bias of toxicity testing that routinely proceeds, whether ERA practitioners are cognizant of the bias or not. An organism that is all of a sudden thrust into a contaminated milieu is far removed from the sediment-dwelling or water column-dwelling forms that naturally occur at a contaminated waterbody of interest. Where the biases of conventional testing are exposed, ERA practitioners will be more receptive to the prospect of developing and applying improved sediment testing that is more realistic and less forced.
