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<br />134 <br /> <br />HAMILTON ET AL. <br /> <br /> <br />IlaziorMck Bar <br /> <br />N <br />t <br /> <br />[;]11 <br />ANI! <br />Utah <br /> <br />'. I <br />4 <br /> <br />IIIILII <br />I <br /> <br />, <br />IICIl.DIIITIIllI <br /> <br />FIG. 1. Map of Green River providing location of sampling sites for <br />light trapping of larval razorback sucker. <br /> <br />preserved in ethanol, and held in 20-ml glass vials at room <br />temperature. <br /> <br />Determination of Selenium in Larvae <br /> <br />Selenium concentrations were measured in 10 razorback <br />sucker larvae from each of the five sites on the Green River. <br />Selenium was determined by neutron activation analysis of <br />composites of the larvae. Some analyses were accomplished <br />on one larva and other analyses on composites of 2 to 10 <br />larvae. Larvae samples were prepared and analyzed at the <br />Environmental and Contaminants Research Center (ECRC) <br />and at the University of Missouri Research Reactor <br />(MURR), both in Columbia, Missouri. <br />Neutron activation was used for the analysis of larvae <br />because of the extremely small sample mass. All sample <br /> <br />preparation prior (0 neutron activation analysis is described <br />in Waddell and May (1995). Samples were transported to <br />MURR for the determination of the radio nuclide Se --m <br />(McKown and Morris, 1978). The method is briefly de- <br />scribed in Waddell and May (1995) and the only exception <br />was that samples and standards were successively placed in <br />a shuttle rabbit and irradiated for 5 s at a thermal neutron <br />flux of about 8 x 1014 n x cm - Z x sec - 1, instead of 1 x 1014 <br />n x cm - 2 X sec -1. Selenium standards and quality control <br />samples were analyzed in the same manner. National Insti- <br />tute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 1577 (bovine <br />liver) standard reference material was analyzed by M URR <br />as quality control checks on accuracy and precision. Sel- <br />enium values in micrograms were obtained by direct com- <br />parison of peak areas obtained for the samples to the <br />average peak areas obtained for a set of standards. <br />Samples of the ethanol used to preserve larvae during <br />storage and a composite sample of larval razorback suckers <br />were analyzed for 61 elements by inductively coupled <br />plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Seven vials contain- <br />ing ethanol only (no larvae) were combined, referred to as <br />clean ethanol, and analyzed as one sample. Ethanol from <br />the 26 vials that originally contained larvae was combined, <br />referred to as dirty ethanol, and analyzed as one sample. <br />One composite of 279 razorback suckers was formed from <br />larvae collected between May 19 and June 6 at Stewart <br />Lake Drain. Guts and otoliths of these larvae were removed <br />and retained at the Larval Fish Laboratory for other deter- <br />minations. The larval composite was placed in a 20-ml <br />scintillation vial and lyophilized to a constant dry weight. <br />The clean and dirty ethanol samples were each placed into <br />a 250-ml Zymark Turbo Yap I12 tube and the samples <br />evaporated with a Turbo Vap water bath at 50T and <br />nitrogen vortexing to approximately a I-ml endpoint. Each <br />ethanol liquid was transferred to a Questron bomb vessel <br />(Teflon) by rinsing with 5 ml concentrated nitric acid. The <br />lyophilized fish larvae composite sample (0.091 g) was also <br />transferred to a Questron bomb to which 5 ml concentrated <br />nitric acid was added. The bombs were sealed and placed in <br />a CEM microwave oven which proceeded through a six- <br />step program to acid-digest the samples. After the bombs <br />were cooled for 2 h in a freezer, the resulting digestate liquid <br />was transferred to a polyethylene bottle and diluted to <br />100 m!. The diluted digestate matrix was 5% nitric acid. <br />Quality control samples carried through the procedure in- <br />cluded ethanol blanks, spiked ethanol, four nitric acid diges- <br />tion blanks, and spiked nitric acid blank. <br />All digestates were analyzed for elements using aPE' <br />SCIEX Elan 6000 ICP-MS. The operation was conducted in <br />TotalQuant mode, which is an exhaustive semiquantitative <br /> <br />2 References to trade names. commercial products. or manufacturers do <br />not imply or constitute governmental endorsement or recommendation for <br />use. <br />