FY 1979

Trace metals and marine production processes

Feely, R.A., and H. Curl, Jr.

In Proceedings of a Workshop at Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, NOAA/ERL Special Report, 28 February –2 March 1979, 22 pp (1979)

As part of a program studying the long-range effects of pollution the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, one of the Environmental Research Laboratores of NOAA, conducted a workshop to prepare recommendations for research on the effects of trace metals on estuarine and coastal ecosystems. The significant recommendations are the following: (1) laboratory studies should concentrate on (a) developing analytical procedures for determining the concentrations and principal species of trace metals in coastal waters and (b) producing dose-response curves for different biological species exposed to selected metal species; (2) field studies should be devoted to determining (a) actual concentrations and speciation of trace metals and exchanges of these trace metals between dissolved and particulate phases, and (b) the effect of specific trace metal species on the species succession of natural populations of marine phytoplankton; and (3) chemical models should be developed to predict the effects of anthropogenic inputs of trace metals to coastal waters.