Impact of extreme metal contamination at the supra-individual level in a contaminated bay ecosystem

Anthropogenic stressors impact the global environment and adversely affect the health of organisms and humans. This study was designed as an attempt to evaluate the ecological consequences of severe metal contamination at the supra-individual level based on a field investigation in Jinzhou Bay (JZB), North China in 2010. The chemical results showed high concentrations of metals in the sediment of JZB that were ~129 times greater than the local geochemical background. Furthermore, the measured metals exhibited considerably high toxicity potential indicated by sediment quality guidelines (SQGs). The mean SQGs quotients suggested the overall toxicity incidence was >70% in locations neighboring the Wulihe River mouth. Biomonitoring revealed 116 individuals distributed among a mere 6 species, 4 of which were polychaetes, at 33% of the sampling sites. Thus, few benthic organisms were present in the damaged community structures across the region, which was consistent with the extreme metal contamination. Moreover, the sediment quality assessment, in a weight of evidence framework, demonstrated that the sediment throughout the entire JZB was moderately to severely impaired, especially in the vicinity of the Wulihe River mouth. By synthesizing the present and previous chemical-biological monitoring campaigns, a possible cause-effect relationship between chemical stressors and benthic receptors was established. We also found that the hydrodynamics, sediment sources, and geochemical characteristics of the metals (in addition to the sources of the metals) were responsible for the geochemical distribution of metals in JZB. The significance of the overall finding is that the deleterious responses observed at the community level may possibly be linked to the extreme chemical stress in the sediment of JZB.