This study addresses historical trends in contaminants of estuarine and coastal sediments.
Changes due to the Industrial Revolution, dating from the middle of the 19th century, are well known. These changes are expressed by increased levels of natural components, including trace metals and nutrients, but also by increased levels of anthropogenic compounds such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and pesticides.
Beginning in the early 1960s, and into the 1970s, legislation was enacted to decrease discharges of pollutants into waterways. Due to a lack of sensitive analytical techniques or regular data collection, the extent of past pollution and the impact of legislation are often difficult to assess.
The analysis of sediment cores presents a way out of this dilemma. By analyzing cores of undisturbed sediments, it is possible to assess the historic pollution of a given system.
Sediment cores reflect not only the history of pollutant concentrations, but also register changes in the ecology of a water body, for example, changes in estuarine eutrophication are reflected in the concentration of organic matter, nitrogen, and phosphorus.
Areas for which coring data exist include: Hudson-Raritan Estuary, Long Island Sound marshes, Chesapeake Bay and Savannah Estuary on the East Coast; Tampa Bay, Mississippi River Delta, and Galveston Bay on the Gulf Coast; and Southern California Bight, San Francisco Bay, and Puget Sound on the West Coast.
Partners
Johns Hopkins University
Maryland Geological Survey
College of William and Mary
Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, University of Georgia
University of Delaware
University of California, Los Angeles
Oregon State University
