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THE NATIONAL COASTAL ASSESSMENT SETAC ANNUAL MEETING, BALTIMORE, MD NOV 2001
Citation:
Summers, J K. THE NATIONAL COASTAL ASSESSMENT SETAC ANNUAL MEETING, BALTIMORE, MD NOV 2001. Presented at SETAC Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, Nov. 11-15, 2001.
Description:
To be presented at the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry: Changing Environmental Awareness: Societal Concerns and Scientific Responses, 11-15 November 2001, Baltimore, MD. 1 p. (ERL,GB R859).
The primary purpose of the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program's National Coastal Assessment is to estimate the current status, extent, changes, and trends in ecological indicators of the condition of the nation's coastal resources on a national basis. Based on NCA monitoring activities from 1999-2001, 100% of the nation's estuarine waters (at over 2500 locations) were sampled focusing on suites of measurements describing the benthic community, the fish community, water quality, levels of sediment and tissue contamination, sediment toxicity, and SAV extent/condition. Estuarine monitoring was based on a
probability-based sampling design implemented over a 60-day window durinig July-September. The results of monitoring represent the first National Coastal Report Card delineating the condition of the Nation's estuarine resources. These results are compared to earlier surveys representing a portion of U.S. estuarine resources but without representation of estuaries from the New Egland, the West Coast, Alaska, Hawaii or puerto Rico. Earlier sruveys showed that 25% ? 4% of the sediments of the nation had degraded biological conditions while
29% ? 4% of the area showed degraded conditions in relation to human uses of the resource (e.g., water clarity, tissue contaminants, and the presence of marine debris). Changes in these attributes from the early 1990s to the early 2000s are examined and specific comparisons of differences among state resources are made. An examination of the use of the estuaries associated with EPA's National Estuary Program as a representation of overall national condition of estuarine resources in the United States is made.