South Atlantic Water Science Center
South Atlantic Water Science Center
Two bed sediment and tissue surveys were conducted early in the project to provide information useful to the overall study design. An initial survey of 31 sites consisting of integrator, indicator, selected main-stem river, and reservoir sites was conducted in 1992 to determine occurrence of organic compounds and trace metals in bed sediments and the Asiatic clam Corbicula fluminea. A second survey that included resampling of many of the initial sites and 15 additional sites, primarily in urban and suburban watersheds, was conducted in 1993 to better define the distribution of organic compounds and trace metals throughout the ACF River basin. Additional bed sediment samples were collected at 19 sites in September 1994, following the record flooding caused by Tropical Storm Alberto.
Because of the basin-wide distribution of Corbicula fluminea, it was exclusively analyzed to assess the bioaccumulation of organic compounds and trace metals in tissue, except at three locations in the Apalachicola River floodplain where Gambusia affinis holbrooki (mosquitofish) was used for tissue analysis.
