Benthic Biochemist ry 



The study of Mytjly? eluljj at the New London site is an ongoing program 

 sponsored by the Navy that has been reported elsewhere. An example of the 

 results of this study is presented in Figure F-10. The data for Nickel were 

 derived from Mytilus eduli s monitoring stations at New London disposal site. 

 During the predisposal period (March to August, 1977), the ratios of Ni were 

 all within the 95% confidence limits of the baseline data, which are delineated 

 by a set of broken lines. Elevated ratios (up to 12 times of the baseline data) 

 coincided with periods of heightened disposal activities from September 1977 to 

 February 1978. As the disposal activity subsided in March 1978, the ratios (except 

 DI) quickly returned to within the 95^0 confidence limits. The observed rise and 

 fall of the ratios which correleated with the dumping activity were also apparent 

 in mussels from the reference area (North Dumping) which is located two miles 

 east of the disposal area. However, the magnitude of the rise is much less than 

 those stations located on or near the dumping area, attesting that M. edulis is 

 a sensitive environmental monitor. 



Future work at New London will be sponsored by the DAMOS program and should 

 provide continuous data over long time periods. 



Senthic Macrofauna 



Although there have been extensive studies of benthic macrofauna conducted 

 under the Navy monitoring program at the New London disposal site, a more general 

 aporoach has been taken for the DAMOS program that is similar to sampling tech- 

 niques used at other sites. Thus, a station on the disposal site and a reference. 

 station are compared. The results of the numeric density data are presented in 

 Tables F-3 and F-4. These stations are quite different in that the reference 

 station has higher diversity (H') and more total number of individuals although 

 the disposal site station had a predominance of A. vadorum. 



