Principal Investigator Philip Gschwend
The objective of this project is to develop an accurate means with which to analyze the narcosis toxicity due to mixtures of hydrophobic organic compounds in sediments. Mixtures of toxic organic compounds can be accumulated from sediments in passive samplers such as those made of polyethylene. We are using two-dimensional gas chromatography with flame ionization detection analyses to, not only quantifying the components of these mixes, but also to provide the necessary weighting information needed to calculate phospholipid-normalized body burdens for organisms equilibrated within the original sediments.