1995•OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information)Requires access
Estimates of the spatial extent of acute toxicity in sediments of selected USA estuaries
E.R. Long, A. Robertson, Gail M. Sloane, Haleigh Boswell
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Abstract
Acute toxicity has been measured in sediments collected during surveys of 18 estuaries in the USA. The spatial patterns, severity, and magnitude of toxicity have been determined during these surveys. Also, by weighting the toxicity data to the sizes of the sampling strata, the spatial extent of toxicity (expressed in kilometers{sup 2}) was estimated. The data from a battery of tests with different sensitivities were used to identify the relative severity of toxicity and to identify those areas that were most degraded. Accordingly, the spatial scales of toxicity within each estuary differed according to the sensitivities of the different tests. The spatial extent of toxicity measured in each standardized test was compared among different areas. For example, the results of the amphipod survival tests indicated that the spatial extent of toxicity ranged from 0.0% to over 85% among the different study areas.