Harmonised framework for ecological risk assessment of sediments from ports and estuarine zones of North

摘要: Abstract This paper presents a harmonised framework ofsediment quality assessment and dredging material charac-terisation for estuaries port zones of North SouthAtlantic. framework, based on the weight-of-evidenceapproach, provides structure process conductingsediment/dredging that leads to deci-sion. The main consists ‘‘step 1’’ (examination ofavailable data); 2’’ (chemical characterisation tox-icity assessment); ‘‘decision (any chemical level higherthan reference values? are sediments toxic?); 3’’(assessment benthic community structure); 4’’(integration results); (are toxicor impaired?); 5’’ (construction ofthe decision matrix) 3’’ (is there environmentalrisk?). sequence ofassessments may be interrupted whentheinformationobtainedisjudgedtobesufficientforacorrectcharacterisation risk posed by sediments/dredgingmaterial. Thisframework brought novelfeaturescomparedtoother sediment/dredging frame-works: data integration through multivariate analysis allowsthe identification which samples toxic and/or related toimpaired communities; it also discriminates thechemicals responsible negative biological effects; theframework dispenses use area. We dem-onstrated successful application this in dif-ferent estuarine (Gulf Ca´diz)andSouthAtlantic(SantosandParanagua´ EstuarineSystems).Keywords Sediment Weight evidence Dredged Multivariate EstuaryIntroductionSediment contamination cannot considered exclusivelyas an environmental problem since affects directly