Data Management Plan (Deprecated)

This dataset contains sample collection location information for the National Status and Trends, Bioeffects Assessment Project. The Bioeffects Assessment Sites data files report information regarding the planned sampling locations designated by the planners for the monitoring program. At present about thirty Bioeffects Assessments have been conducted as part of NSandT's Bioeffects Assessment Project. This SITES file only contains site information for the St. Lucie Estuary Study (2001). Site information for the other studies will be added over time beginning with the Chesapeake Bay Study (1998, 1999, 2001). One record is presented per site. Each record reports the planned values of latitude and longitude and the actual values recorded at the time of sampling, five letter site acronym, site sequence number, general and specific location information, state abbreviation, state name, degree-minute-second coordinates, decimal degree coordinates, and species information, among other things. The actual site coordinate information is recorded at the time of sampling, if samples were taken at a location other than the nominal site center. The five letter acronym is based on both the general location information and more specific location information (e.g. SFSM is San Francisco-San Mateo Bridge). The file also contains sequence numbers that facilitate geographic manipulation of the data. Sites are numbered sequentially from the northernmost site on the U.S. East coast and continue counter-clockwise around the country.

Process Steps:

• Approximately thirty regional studies have been undertaken as part of the Bioeffects Assessment Project. This is an ongoing project of intensive regional studies, of 2 to 4-year duration, to assess bioeffects associated with contaminant exposure. Biological responses to contamination have been examined and monitored in a number of ways, including toxicity tests of sediments using multiple laboratory species, several biochemical and histo-pathological assays of bottom-dwelling fishes and bivalve mollusks, and assessments of the in situ biological community assemblage to determine the significance of exposure to toxicants. The Bioeffects Assessment Project also allow a comparison of the validity and responses of different indicators of biological effects, leading to improved NOAA survey techniques for subsequent study areas. Many of the studies were designed around a "Sediment Quality Triad" in order to diagnose relationships among measures of sediment contamination, sediment toxicity, and macrobenthic community response to degraded environment. A secondary criterion for selecting these areas is the likelihood of collaborative or complementary efforts with other Federal, state, and local agencies, assuring the direct and immediate use of study results.The Sediment Quality Triad, developed in the mid-1980s, is now widely used for conducting integrated assessments of sediment quality based on measures of chemistry, toxicity and benthos. If the appropriate tools are used in the Triad approach, users can identify those contaminants which have the strongest associations with toxicity and benthic effects and those that may not immediately appear to be of concern (Chapman, et al., 1997)

Bioeffects Assessment Program data for the St. Lucie Estuary can be obtained on line at http://ccma.nos.noaa.gov/about/coast/nsandt/. Please contact the NSandT program directly to obtain information about data availability for other sites within the Bioeffects Assessment study area.;