31. October 2017, Topic: Sediment Ecotoxicology Risk Assessment

A focus on communities in freshwater sediments

On April 27-28 2017, the first French-Swiss conference on communities in freshwater sediments was held in Villié-Morgon (F). The meeting brought together more than 40 scientists, management experts and consultants to discuss key issues related to sediment ecotoxicology. The regulatory framework for sediment assessment in France is different from the approach in Switzerland. However, the challenges are similar in both countries: There is a lack of standardized sampling methods, ecotoxicological methods and quality standards ​​for evaluating sediment quality in freshwater sediments. There is high demand for new methods to assess the influence of pollutants on biological communities  - these are particularly useful for ecotoxicological evaluation because they represent a medium level of organization between populations and ecosystems. The event was organised by the Ecotox Center and the Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture  (IRSTEA) in Lyon (F). A new publication summarizes the findings from the workshop.

Pesce, S.,  Perceval, O., Bonnineau, C., Casado-Martinez, C.,  Dabrin, A., Lyautey, E., Naffrechoux, E., Ferrari, B.J.D. (2017) Looking at biological community level to improve ecotoxicological assessment of freshwater sediments: report on a first French-Swiss workshop. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-0620-z

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