Comparison of Species Sensitivity Distributions for Sediment‐Associated Nonionic Organic Chemicals Through Equilibrium Partitioning Theory and Spiked‐Sediment Toxicity Tests with Invertebrates

Equilibrium partitioning (EqP) theory and spiked‐sediment toxicity tests are useful methods to develop sediment quality benchmarks. However, neither approach has been directly compared based on species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) to date. In the present study, we compared SSDs for 10 nonionic hydrophobic chemicals (e.g., pyrethroid insecticides, other insecticides, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) based on 10–14‐day spiked‐sediment toxicity test data with those based on EqP theory using acute water‐only tests. Because the exposure periods were different between the two tests, effective concentrations (i.e., median effective/lethal concentration) were corrected to compare SSDs. Accordingly, we found that hazardous concentrations for 50% and 5% of species (HC50 and HC5, respectively) differed by up to a factor of 100 and 129 between the two approaches, respectively. However, when five or more species were used for SSD estimation, their differences were reduced to a factor of 1.7 and 5.1 for HC50 and HC5, respectively, and the 95% confidence intervals of HC50 values overlapped considerably between the two approaches. These results suggest that when the number of test species is adequate, SSDs based on EqP theory and spiked‐sediment tests are comparable in sediment risk assessments. Environ Toxicol Chem 2022;41:462–473. © 2021 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC.