U.S. Coastal Sediment and Bivalve Contaminant Measurements from 1984-1989

1984-1989 data from NOAA's National Status and Trends program measuring toxins in coastal sediments and bivalve tissues. It includes chemical analyses for DDT, PAHs, PCBs, pesticides, trace elements, and tributyltin from 177 fixed monitoring sites along U.S. Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The data originates from the Benthic Surveillance and Mussel Watch projects.

Use Cases

• Model temporal trends of contaminant accumulation in bivalve tissues using annual measurements from 177 sites between 1986-1989.
• Analyze geographic distribution of sediment contaminants like DDT using data from fixed coastal stations not near major pollution sources.
• Assess the impact of the 1988 tributyltin ban by comparing TBT and its breakdown product concentrations in tissue samples before and after the regulation.
• Correlate concentrations of polyaromatic hydrocarbons and polychlorinated biphenyls in sediments with trace element levels in bivalve tissues from co-located samples.

Strengths

• Multi-year temporal coverage from 1984 to 1989, enabling trend analysis.
• Spatial coverage includes 177 fixed monitoring sites on U.S. Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
• Measures a wide range of contaminants including DDT, PAHs, PCBs, trace metals, and tributyltin.

Limitations

• Data is temporally stale, with the last update in 1989, limiting analysis of recent conditions.
• Sample sites were intentionally not near major contamination sources, which may underrepresent peak pollution levels.
• Data is split across multiple files (bssed.txt, mwsed.txt, mollto90.txt, tbt_90.txt, mwsiteyr.txt) with different formats, including a WordPerfect 4.2 file.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) via NASA Earthdata.

Collection Method

Samples collected under NOAA's National Status and Trends program via the Benthic Surveillance Project (sediment and benthic fish tissue) and Mussel Watch Project (sediment and bivalves).

Time Range

1984-01-01 to 1989-12-31

Freshness

Static historical dataset; last updated 1989-12-31.

Geography

Coastal waters of the Western U.S. and North American Coastline-North, including Atlantic and Pacific coasts.