PROTOCOLS FOR SAMPLE DESIGN ANDIMPLEMENTATION-COLLECTING EPHEMERAL DATADURING EMERGENCY RESPONSE FOR NATURALRESOURCE DAMAGE ASSESSMENTS

摘要

During the emergency phase of an oil orhazardous material spill, natural resource managers andtrustees must quickly develop and implement study plans tocollect ephemeral data on the extent and degree ofcontamination and the potential biological injury resultingfrom the spill. Manuals and guidelines have beendeveloped by various groups, yet these documents haveproven to be too difficult to use during the chaotic, earlydays of a spill emergency. To provide better guidance, aseries of brief (two-page) protocol summaries have beenprepared for the types of sampling activities likely to beconducted during the emergency phase of spill, supportingboth response and natural resource damage assessment(NRDA) objectives. Protocols have been prepared forcollection of samples of the source oil(s), water samples,intertidal sediments, subtidal sediments, and shellfishtissues for chemical and histopathological analysis.Protocols are also being prepared for procedures tomeasure salt marsh injury, visual estimates of abundanceand percent cover in quadrats, and quantitativemeasurements of infaunal abundance.