Spatial and temporal distributions of contaminant body burden and disease in Gulf of Mexico oyster populations: The role of local and large-scale climatic controls

Abstract

As part of NOAA's Status and Trends Program, oysters were sampled from 43 sites throughout the Gulf of Mexico from Brownsville, Texas, to the Florida Everglades from 1986 to 1989. Oysters were analyzed for body burden of a suite of metals and petroleum aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the prevalence and intensity of the oyster pathogen, Perkinsus marinus, and condition index.