| Summary: | As part of its bioeffects assessment program. NOAA has begun a series of surveys of the toxicity and other biological effects of toxicants in selected bays and estuaries of the U.S. (Wolfe et al., 1993). In these surveys, adverse biological effects (bioeffects) are measured in sediments with laboratory toxicity tests and in bivalve molluscs and demersal fishes with selected biomarkers. The The data are used to identify the significance of chemical contamination, spatial patterns in measures of effects, the severity of magnitude of effects, and the relationships between measures of effects and the concentrations of toxicants. In the surveys of sediment quality, toxicity tests are performed as measures of biological effects. The objectives of the sediment quality surveys are to determine: (1) the spatial patterns and extent of toxicity, (2) the severity or degree of toxcitiy, and (3) the relationships between toxicity and potentially toxic substances in the sediments.
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