National Status and Trends, Benthic Surveillance Project DNA-Xenobiotic Adducts Data, 1991, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science

In order to determine the current status of and to detect any long-term trends in the environmental quality of U.S. nearshore waters, NOAA initiated the National Status and Trends program in 1984 with its National Benthic Surveillance Project. The primary objective of the Benthic Surveillance Project was to quantify concentrations of a suite of organic and inorganic contaminants in the livers of fish and surficial sediments from selected sites in the coastal and estuarine waters of the United States. In addition, the levels of certain indicators of the biological effects of these contaminants were measured. Incidences of visible lesions, including fin erosion, have been noted and histopathological examinations of various tissues have been carried out. Originally histopathological examinations determined the prevalence of any identifiable disease conditions in samples of liver, kidney, and gill tissue.In addition, the Benthic Surveillance Project tested fish livers from 30 locations in 1991 to identify the concentrations of DNA xenobiotic adducts. DNA xenobiotic adducts are a bioindicator of exposure to genotoxic compounds. Measurement of biological markers such as DNA xenobiotic adducts have been used to improve the evaluation of contaminant exposure and responses in indigenous fish, and thus reinforce the connection between exposure to toxic chemicals and the observed injuries.

In response to concerns over environmental quality of the Nation's coastal and estuarine ecosystems, NOAA created the National Status and Trends (NSandT) Program in 1984. From 1984 through 1993, the Benthic Surveillance Project monitored chemical concentrations in the livers (and for metabolites of PAH's in the bile) of bottom-dwelling fish and in sediments at the sites of fish capture. The Benthic Surveillance Project also measured the biological effects of contaminant exposure, primarily as prevalence's of toxicopathic liver diseases.

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NOAA requests that all individuals who download NSandT data acknowledge the source of these data in any reports, papers, or presentations. If you publish these data, please include a statement similar to: "Some or all of the data described in this article were produced by NOAA through its National Status and Trends Program".

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The same kind of field/site data have been supplied since the start of the Benthic Surveillance Project, in 1984. Original site coordinates were derived from Loran-C time conversions. Early sites information resulting from Loran-C was converted from time delay information to latitudes and longitudes. These earlier data may be suspect when sites were located close to large structures that could have interfered with accurate time delays. When GPS was first available the signal was intentionally degrades so earlier coordinate information, even if it resulted from GPS, is not as accurate as data would be today. Because fish are not sessile, fish trawls have been made along different tracks in the water body of interest. The latitude/longitude coordinates provided in this file represent a nominal site center and trawling occurs within a 1 km radius of this location.

The quality of the analytical data generated by the NSandT Program is overseen by the QA Project component, which has been in operation since 1985 and is designed to document sampling and analytical procedures, and to reduce intralaboratory and interlaboratory variation. The QA Project documentation will facilitate comparisons between different monitoring programs with similar QA activities and thus will extend the temporal and spatial scale of such programs. To document laboratory expertise, the QA Project requires all NSandT laboratories to participate in a continuing series of intercomparison exercises utilizing a variety of materials. The organic analytical intercomparison exercises are coordinated by the NIST, and the inorganic exercises by the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada. Details of quality assurance for the Benthic Surveillance Program can be found in Lauenstein and Cantillo, 1993.

The analytical instruments were calibrated by standard laboratory procedures including: constructing calibration curves, running blank and spiked quality control samples and analyzing standard reference materials. To assess the reproducibility of results every tissue sample was analyzed in duplicate.