Integrated ecotoxicological assessment of bottom sediments from the Paraná basin, Argentina

• We studied sediment quality of a major watercourse.
• We found that a combined strategy of assessment was a suitable tool for detecting critical areas.
• We found causes of detected adverse effects.
• Urban and industrial sources of pollution showed severe impacts on sediment quality.

Paraná River, the six largest in the world, is receptor of pollution loads from tributaries traversing urban and industrialized areas, and extensive agriculture, particularly in its middle and low stretch along the Argentinean sector, where most of the productive activities of the country develop. Within the frame of monitoring surveys, the quality of bottom sediments from distal positions of twenty tributaries and three of the main course was evaluated. The assessment covered testing lethal and sublethal effects with the Hyalella curvispina based toxicity test, a benthic macrofauna survey and physicochemical variables of sediment matrix composition. A multivariate statistical analysis approach permitted integrating the obtained data from the different survey lines of evidence, explaining potential causes of the measured biological effects. The main perturbations detected were associated to tributaries in the middle sector of the basin, where anoxic conditions with high sulfide contents prevail mostly related to organic matter inputs of diverse combined activities, where sediments induce high lethality, and a consequent strong reduction of the benthic community population and diversity. The integrated survey approach proved being a robust tool in the assessment of causative—adverse effects relationships.