Biomonitoring of Environmental Status and Trends (BEST) Program: Contaminants and Related Effects in Fish from the Mississippi, Columbia, and Rio Grande Basins

摘要

The Biomonitoring of Environmental Status and Trends (BEST) Program was initiated, in part, as a revision and expansion of the National Contaminant Biomonitoring Program (NCBP). One aspect of the BEST program focuses on monitoring contaminants and effects across broad geographic areas. This approach is currently being tested in the Mississippi, Columbia, and Rio Grande basins. The overall objectives of this project are to describe the occurrence and distribution of contaminants and their effects on fish in the three basins; to quantitatively evaluate the performance of aquatic methods used by the BEST program; and to evaluate potential collaborations with the National Stream Quality Accounting Network (NASQAN-II) and the National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) programs of the USGS-Water Resources Division. Fish were collected from 46 sites in the Mississippi River basin (1995); 16 sites in the Columbia River basin (1997); 10 sites in the Rio Grande basin (1997); and from a reference site in West Virginia.