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U.S. Department of Energy
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Comparison of two shoreline assessment programs conducted for the Exxon Valdez oil spill

Conference ·
OSTI ID:452110
 [1];  [2]
  1. West Virginia Univ., Morgantown, WV (United States)
  2. Bowdoin Coll., Brunswick, ME (United States)
Two large shoreline assessment studies conducted in 1990 in Prince William Sound, Alaska, after the Exxon Valdez oil spill used different design strategies to determine the impact of oiling on shoreline biota. One of the studies, the Coastal Habitat Injury Assessment (CHIA) conducted for the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Council, used matched pairs of sites, normal population distributions for biota, and meta-analysis. The power of the CHIA study to detect oiling impacts depends on being able to identify and select appropriate pairs of sites for comparison. The CHIA study also increased the oiling signal by focusing on moderate to heavily oiled sites. The Shoreline Ecology Program (SEP), conducted for Exxon, used a stratified-random-sampling study design, normal and non-normal population distributions and covariates. The SEP study was able to detect oiling impacts by using a sufficient number of sites and widely spaced transects.
OSTI ID:
452110
Report Number(s):
CONF-961149--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English