Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, South Atlantic Coast CESU

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The funding opportunity is to conduct research on the toxicity of nickel to nematodes in water or in sediment following ISO 2008 methods. The goal of this research is to evaluate the chronic toxicity of nickel to benthic invertebrates in freshwater sediment. The study will consist of three main Objectives: Objective 1: Develop methods for spiking freshwater sediments with nickel and for conducting whole-sediment toxicity tests with nickel-spiked sediments; Objective 2: Evaluate the sensitivity of a variety of benthic test organisms to toxic effects nickel-spiked sediments (using spiking methods developed in Objective 1) and to nickel in water; and, Objective 3: Evaluate variation in Ni toxicity among sediments with a wide range of metal-binding characteristics, using sensitive species identified in Objective 2. This specific study will evaluate the toxicity of nickel in water or in sediment to the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans following standard methods described in ISO 2008.

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