Monitoring in Support of Estuarine Pollution Management Needs

Estuaries are extremely dynamic ecosystems in which substantial spatial and temporal heterogeneity exists, and dramatic climatically-controlled biological changes can occur from year-to-year. As a result, the traditional monitoring of biological populations or of environmental pollutant concentrations is usually ineffective since, even if very large numbers of samples are taken, environmentally-significant degrees of pollutant-induced change cannot be statistically isolated from natural change. A successful, estuarine pollution monitoring program must include a hierarchy of direct and indirect measurements, and the program results must be carefully evaluated to derive a cohesive picture of the state of the estuarine system.