Monitoring Fates and Effects of Contaminants in Benthos of the New York Bight

A monitoring program involving annual sampling of the New York Bight for sediments, contaminants in sediments and biota, and benthic macrofauna distribution-abundance, is described. This paper concentrates on macrofauna data for summer 1980. Greatest faunal alterations were found in the center of th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inOCEANS 82 pp. 1005 - 1009
Main Authors Reid, R., O'Reilly, J., Gadbois, D.
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published 1982
Subjects
Assembly
Ecosystems
Laboratories
Monitoring
Sampling methods
Sea measurements
Sediments
Thermal degradation
US Department of Commerce
Viruses (medical)
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Summary:A monitoring program involving annual sampling of the New York Bight for sediments, contaminants in sediments and biota, and benthic macrofauna distribution-abundance, is described. This paper concentrates on macrofauna data for summer 1980. Greatest faunal alterations were found in the center of the sewage sludge dumpsite. This condition graded into apparently unimpacted assemblages in sandy sediments off the New Jersey and Long Island coasts, and in lower Hudson Shelf Valley muds. Comparisons with 1973-74 data revealed no major changes in contaminant concentrations or impacts except for possible spreading of an "enriched" zone containing elevated densities of several species which thrive on the Christiaensen Basin's elevated organic carbon levels. Four stations have not shown any obvious changes in amount of degradation over that period. The inner Bight fauna remains more highly impacted than that of any other coastal area sampled in the Northeast Monitoring Program.
DOI:10.1109/OCEANS.1982.1151824