ous methods used to preserve specimens of plants and animals in the 

 past and at the present time. The first goal is to determine the feasibility 

 of analyzing specimens preserved in museum collections for heavy and 

 transition metals, hydrocarbons, and other appropriate elements and com- 

 pounds. If such analyses are deemed feasible, the second goal will be to 

 extend the baseline data on marine environmental pollutants from the 

 present as far back in time as possible, analyzing specimens from as 

 many museums as are willing to participate in the project. 



DURHAM WORKSHOP ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY 



In August 1971 a group of about 50 U.S. and foreign scientists who 

 have been actively engaged in environmental research met in Durham, 

 New Hampshire, in a meeting convened by the National Academy of 

 Sciences under the auspices of the U.S. Office for the IDOE. The purpose 

 of the meeting was to consider five major areas that are likely to be of 

 importance in environmental quality research and to recommend research 

 priorities in each. The five areas are: 1) the identification of major rec- 

 ognized and unrecognized pollutants, their sources and rates of input; 



2) delineation of processes affecting the dispersal of these pollutants; 



3) understanding the geochemical and biological transfer of each element 

 or compound in the ocean; 4) establishing the effects of pollutants on 

 organisms and their life processes; and 5) determining the sites of final 

 deposition of specific elements and compounds in the ocean environment. 

 Some of the recommendations relative to the above five research areas 

 and how they relate to ongoing and future IDOE-supported programs are 



indicated below. 23 



Sources and Rates of Input 



Studies should be undertaken to measure the rates at which the 

 major pollutants are being delivered to the oceans both in nearshore 

 waters as river runoff from the continents and in the open ocean as 

 airborne fallout compounds. The Durham Workshop singled out poly- 

 chlorinated biphenyl compounds (PCB) for highest priority, and petro- 

 leum films at the ocean surface and several of the heavy metals as being 

 the next most crucial areas for scientific investigation. 



Dispersal Mechanisms 



Studies should be undertaken in dispersal of airborne pollutants 

 through the water surface films, adsorption of particles, and dilution by 

 physical and chemical processes. 



Chemical and Biological Transfers 



Adequate studies in this category require an intense measurement 

 program in a well-defined ecological environment. The high cost of data 

 collection will limit the number of such studies to one or two locations. 

 The field studies should be augmented by laboratory experiments on 

 specific animals. 



E£fects on Organisms 



The Durham Workshop concluded that most of the efforts to date 

 in this category have been devoted to laboratory determinations of the 



