Project Information

Title: Sediment Quality Survey of Heavily-Oiled Beaches in PWS 040772

Project Year and Number: 2004: 040772

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: None

Principal Investigator (PI): Betsy Day (Integral Consulting)

Managing Agency: ADOL

Assisting Personnel: None

Research Location: Prince William Sound

Restoration Category: Research

Injured Resources Addressed: Intertidal Organisms, Sediments, Subtidal Organisms

Abstract: Recent work by Short et al. (2004) demonstrated that lingering oil is found in subsurface intertidal sediments in 43 of the 91 beaches sampled during the summer of 2001. This proposed research project is directed at understanding potential ecological effects to invertebrate populations resulting from lingering oil in subsurface intertidal sediments. Sediments from five locations containing heavily-oiled subsurface sediments and five nearby reference areas will be collected concurrently with the NMFS continuing lingering oil studies and evaluated for PAHs, sediment toxicity using the mussel larvae bioassay, and benthic community structure. The results will provide information on the potential ecological impacts from lingering subsurface oil and will be evaluated using a weight-of-evidence approach. If this project shows that the heavily-oiled sediments are not causing impacts to benthic invertebrates then it can be assumed that benthic invertebrate populations in moderately or lightly-oiled sediments would not be affected by the lingering oil.


Proposal: View (383 KB)

Information and/or Products produced by this project:
Title Description Type Document(s)
Data Files Data used in this project Other View (192 KB)

Reports:
Annual Report FY04: View (49 KB)
Annual Report FY05: View (44 KB)
Final Report: View (915 KB)

Publications from this Project: None Available