96306000 Standley Particle-reactive organic contaminants introduced into aquatic environments are quickly concentrated onto suspended particle surfaces and delivered to the sediment surface where intimate contact with benthic organisms occurs. In this innovative project, the investigators will study geochemical-biological interactions involved in the transfer of particle-reactive anthropogenic organic contaminants from aquatic sediments to benthic meio- and macrofaunal communities. The approach is innovative inasmuch as the effects of sedimentary organic composition, chemical nature of contaminants, and organism feeding pattern will be considered synoptically in field studies and also studied in detail by experimental manipulation in laboratory microcosms. The investigators anticipate that such studies will lead to a clearer understanding of processes involved in sediment-to-animal transfer of contaminants and to an improved capacity to predict the transfer of organic contaminants between aquatic sediments and benthic communities.
