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Magnitude and extent of sediment toxicity in four bays of the Florida Panhandle: Pensacola, Choctawhatchee, St. Andrew and Apalachicola. National status and trends program for marine environmental quality: Technical memo

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:316471
The toxicity of sediments in Pensacola, Choctawhatcheee, St. Andrew and Apalachicola Bays was determined as part of bioeffects assessments performed by NOAA`s National Status and Trends Program. The objectives of the survey were to determine: (1) the spatial patterns in toxicity throughout each bay, (2) the spatial extent of toxicity throughout and among the bays, (3) the severity of degree of toxicity, and (4) the relationships between chemical contamination and toxicity. The survey was conducted over two years: Pensacola Bay and St. Andrew Bay were sampled in 1993; and Choctawhatchee Bay, Apalachicola Bay and Bayou Chico (a sub-basin of Pensacola Bay) were sampled during 1994. Surficial sediment samples were collected from 123 randomly-chosen locations throughout the five areas. Multiple toxicity tests were conducted on all samples, and chemical analyses were performed on 102 of the 123 samples. Toxicological tests were conducted to determine survival, reproductive success, morphological development, metabolic activity, and genotoxicity; all bays showed toxicity in at least some of the samples.
Research Organization:
National Ocean Service, Office of Ocean Resources Conservation and Assessment, Silver Spring, MD (United States); Skidaway Inst. of Oceanography, Savannah, GA (United States); Biological Resources Div., Reston, VA (United States); Battelle Ocean Sciences, Duxbury, MA (United States); Florida State Dept. of Environmental Protection, Tallahassee, FL (United States)
OSTI ID:
316471
Report Number(s):
PB--99-119463/XAB; NOAA-TM-NOS-ORCA--117
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English