Bays are found where headlands or harbor works enclose an area of oceanic water within an indentation along the coast. Some examples of bays in California are Humboldt Bay, Bodega Harbor, San Francisco Bay, Morro Bay, Los Angeles Harbor, Newport Bay, Mission Bay, and San Diego Bay.
The goal of this research program is to develop measurement tools and an assessment framework to evaluate the impacts of sediment contaminants on benthic aquatic life within bays.
The initial phase of this research was completed in 2007. Work to refine and evaluate the tools is ongoing.
The tool development efforts focused on the three major elements (lines of evidence) of the sediment quality evaluation: toxicity evaluation, chemical evaluation, and benthic community assessment, as well as the integration of these elements. The integration procedure consolidates data from each line of evidence and allows sediment samples to be classified into one of five categories of impact:
Tool development was supported by the following SCCWRP activities:
SCCWRP researchers developed and calibrated analysis methods for each line of evidence that provided the best overall assessment of sediment quality. In addition, a framework for integrating the data was developed and compared to assessment approaches used by national experts. These results are documented in several technical reports and publications.
For more information on this topic, please contact Steve Bay at steveb@sccwrp.org
