Bioavailability of energy-effluent materials in coastal ecosystems

An attempt is made to study the long-term effects of effluents from coastal and offshore nuclear power plants. The original intent of the program was to integrate approaches in chemistry, ocean transport, and biological uptake to quantify the variables that regulate biological availability of energy-effluent materials. Initial work was focused on the fate and effects of copper. In later research, the authors examined the basic environmental variables controlling the bioavailability of energy-related contaminants. They investigated how factors such as dissolved organic compounds, suspended particles, and sediment binding affected chemical speciation and how chemical speciation, in turn, influenced the availability of metals and radionuclides to marine invertebrates. They developed a hydrodynamic model to predict sediment and contaminant transport, and they quantified the bioconcentration of synthetic-fuel residuals in plankton