Developmental toxicity of Louisiana crude oil-spiked sediment to zebrafish

• Sediment containing south Louisiana crude oil resulted in abnormal zebrafish embryos.
• Sediment collected from Deepwater Horizon oil spill areas had similar impacts to embryos.
• Abnormalities included yolk-sac and pericardial edema, craniofacial and spinal defects.
• Sediments containing 0.1 to 0.2 percent oil caused developmental toxicity in fish embryos.

Embryonic exposures to the components of petroleum, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), cause a characteristic suite of developmental defects and cardiotoxicity in a variety of fish species. We exposed zebrafish embryos to reference sediment mixed with laboratory weathered South Louisiana crude oil and to sediment collected from an oiled site in Barataria Bay, Louisiana in December 2010. Laboratory oiled sediment exposures caused a reproducible set of developmental malformations in zebrafish embryos including yolk sac and pericardial edema, craniofacial and spinal defects, and tissue degeneration. Dose–response studies with spiked sediment showed that total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (tPAH) concentrations of 27 mg tPAH/kg (dry weight normalized to 1 percent organic carbon [1 percent OC]) caused a significant increase in defects, and concentrations above 78 mg tPAH/kg 1 percent OC caused nearly complete embryo mortality. No toxicity was observed in Barataria sediment with 2 mg tPAH/kg 1 percent OC. Laboratory aging of spiked sediment at 4 °C resulted in a nearly 10-fold decrease in sensitivity over a 40-day period. This study demonstrates oiled sediment as an exposure pathway to fish with dose-dependent effects on embryogenesis that are consistent with PAH mechanisms of developmental toxicity. The results have implications for effects on estuarine fish from oiled coastal areas during the Deepwater Horizon spill.

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