CERC Online Databases

• Biomonitoring of Environmental Status and Trends Program (BEST)
  (http://www.cerc.usgs.gov/data/best/search/index.htm)
  • Large River Monitoring Network (LRMN)  search BEST fish health and contaminant data from the Mississippi River Basin, Columbia River Basin, Rio Grande Basin, Yukon River Basin and the U.S. Southeast Rivers. Online, interactive database that includes fish health from several large river basins of the U.S. View data by species, chemical, river basin, sampling station, fish health condition, reproductive or molecular biomarkers, and more.
• Database of Acute Toxicity
  (http://www.cerc.usgs.gov/data/acute/acute.html)
  • Summarizes the results from aquatic acute toxicity tests conducted by the Columbia Environmental Research Center. The acute toxicity test provides a relative starting point for hazard assessment of contaminants and is required for federal chemical registration programs such as the Federal Insecticide Fungicide Rodenticide Act (PL 80-104) as amended by the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act of 1972 (7 USC 136-136y) and the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (PL 94-469). Introduction to the Manual of Acute Toxicity: Interpretation and Database of 410 Chemicals and 66 Species of Freshwater Animals is available online.

  • Note: This is also available in Romanian at: http://webhostinggeeks.com/science/acute-toxicity-rm
• NCBP Data (National Contaminant Biomonitoring Program)
  (http://www.cerc.usgs.gov/data/ncbp/ncbp.html)
  The National Contaminant Biomonitoring Program (NCBP) was established to document trends in the occurrence of persistent toxic chemicals that may threaten fish and wildlife resources. Begun in the early 1960s as part of the National Pesticide Monitoring Program, the NCBP has expanded its initial focus on persistent organochlorine insecticides to include industrial chemicals, herbicides, and potentially toxic elemental contaminants. The program also provides necessary feedback to the regulatory process by documenting the success (or failure) of regulatory actions related to environmental contaminants. The NCBP provides a nationwide source of material that is searched analytically for the occurrence of new or previously undetected environmental contaminants to provide information on emerging problems and for the development of new and improved analytical methods. Through its archival function, the NCBP also provides a means for retrospective analyses and documentation of historical trends for newly identified environmental contaminants. Information from this historical program has also provided an impetus for developing a revised and expanded monitoring program (Biomonitoring of Environmental Status and Trends BEST), which was transferred to USGS in 1996.
• Sediment Effects Concentrations Databases
  (http://www.cerc.usgs.gov/pubs/sedtox/sec.htm)
  The Sediment Effect Concentration Databases contain sediment information about the benthic diversity, laboratory toxicity, contaminant bioaccumulation, geographic locations, chemical concentration, and physical characteristics of samples from the Clark Fork River/Milltown Reservoir system in Montana, the Great lakes, the Upper Mississippi River, the Trinity River in Texas, Mobile Bay in Alabama and Galveston Bay in Texas. Sediment Effect Concentrations (SECs) are defined as the concentrations of individual contaminants in sediment above which toxicity is frequently observed.