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NOAA - National Status and Trends Program Mussel Watch Project
| OverviewNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration long-term contaminant monitoring project of sediments and bivalves in U.S. coastal waters. Initiated 1986. Focused on mussels and oysters (whole body samples, soft tissues only) and sediment grab samples. Data include THg, additional pollutants, and ancillary data. Source Agency: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ContactEd Johnson, Address Phone: 301-713-3029-8 x149 |
| Name of dataset | NOAA's National Status and Trends Mussel Watch Program |
| Geographic area | U.S. coastal states, Great Lakes states, and Puerto Rico |
| State/Province | AK, AL, CA, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, IL, IN, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MS, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PR, RI, SC, TX, VA, WA, WI |
| Activity Category | Monitoring |
| Medium | invertebrates |
| Focal species | Mussels (Mytilus species), Oysters (Crassostrea virginica), Zebra Mussels (Dreissena species) |
| Tissue Types | whole body |
| Approximate size of dataset | 3635 |
| Positional data available? | yes |
| Start Date | 1986 |
| End Date | 2005 |
| Status | Ongoing |
| Frequency of sampling | varies |
| Collection season | summer, fall, winter |
| Current # Of Sampling Locations | varies |
| Historic # Of Sampling Locations | 286 |
| Size of Sampling Area | coastal U.S. |
| Methods | collection of whole bivalves and sediment samples; soft tissues homogenized for lab analysis. Methods described at http://ccma.nos.noaa.gov/publications/tm130.pdf, http://ccma.nos.noaa.gov/publications/tm71v1.pdf, and other publications on CCMA site |
| Individual or composite samples? | Composite |
| Ecosystem Focus | coastal ecosystems |
| Additional Info | Long-term continuous contaminant monitoring program in U.S. coastal waters; analyzes chemical and biological contaminant trends in sediment and bivalve tissue collected at over 280 coastal sites from 1986 to present; includes sediment and bivalve tissue chemistry for over 100 organic and inorganic contaminants; bivalve histology; and Clostridium perfringens data. See supporting documentation for more information (datasets tab). |
| Data Use | Unrestricted |
| Quality Assurance | yes |
| Data Format | Microsoft Excel |
| Hg Measurements | THg |
| Hg Measurement Units | mg/g or mg/kg (ppm) |
| Hg Measurement Weight | dw |
| Ancillary Data | major and trace elements and a suite of organic chemical constituents, including butyltins, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and pesticides; also took sediment grab samples from all bivalve sampling sites |
| BRI has data? | yes |
| Data downloadable on external website? | yes |
| Dated sediment cores? | no |
| Average Core Depth | N/A |
| Comments | Long-term continuous contaminant monitoring program in U.S. coastal waters; analyzes chemical and biological contaminant trends in sediment and bivalve tissue collected at over 280 coastal sites from 1986 to present; includes sediment and bivalve tissue chemistry for over 100 organic and inorganic contaminants; bivalve histology; and Clostridium perfringens data |
