Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Dietary Assimilation Of Cadmium Associated With Bacterial Exopolymer Sediment Coatings By The Estuarine Amphipod Leptocheirus Plumulosus: Effects Of Cd Concentration And Salinity, Christian E. Schlekat, Alan W. Decho, G. Thomas Chandler

Faculty Publications

Bacterial extracellular substances (also known as exopolysaccharides, or EPS) may serve as vectors for trophic transfer of metals in benthic systems because these ubiquitous sediment coatings can sorb high concentrations of toxic metals, and because many benthic invertebrates assimilate EPS sediment coatings upon ingestion. We conducted 3 sets of experiments to determine the assimilative bioavailability of EPS-associated Cd to the benthic amphipod Leptocheirus plumulosus as a function of Cd concentration and salinity. Bioavailability was measured as L. plumulosus Cd assimilation efficiency (AE) from EPS-coated silica (EPS●Si) and from uncoated silica (NC●Si) using modified pulse-chase methods with the gamma-emitting radioisotope ^{109 …}