A study that deployed spiked sediments in a pond found a similar threshold at [SEM]/[AVS] = 1 for effects to local benthic fauna.[14] Spike studies that measured heavy metals concentrations in the pore water - that is, before extracting with HCl - found that, when [AVS] was greater than [SEM], pore water heavy metal concentrations were undetectable or nearly so.[15] These results strongly support the basic theoretical framework of the SEM-AVS approach.