Research Areas > Contaminants > Measurement, Fate & Bioavailability
Research Area: Measurement, Fate, and Bioavailability
Assessing the impacts of contaminants first requires a thorough understanding of their behavior (transport, fate, and transformation) and accessibility to marine organisms (i.e., bioavailability) if contaminants are introduced into the marine environment. To study these concepts, robust methodologies are needed for measuring low levels of toxic metals and organic compounds in various types of media, including air, water, and biota.
SCCWRP Research
To address the need for contaminant measurements at increasingly minute levels (e.g., one part per trillion), SCCWRP chemists are developing analytical methods that can better serve management needs and prove more cost effective than current techniques. These methods are designed to be highly relevant to the end user, thus improving environmental assessments, for example, sediment quality assessment.
Measurement, fate, and bioavailability research includes one project group, Applications for Passive Sampling Technology, and two projects:
Persistent contaminants, such as DDT and mercury, can build up in marsh sediment and be consumed by small invertebrates, which may then pass contaminants on to the fish and the humans who consume them.
This page was last updated on: 9/15/2011