Infaunal invertebrates and contaminants in Saint John Harbour, New Brunswick, Canada

Drs. Heather Hunt (University of New Brunswick) and Karen Kidd (McMaster University) have been leading a long-term project sampling infaunal invertebrates, sediment contaminants, and sediment characteristics at subtidal sites in Saint John Harbour, NB, Canada. This multi-year project is establishing baseline data that can be used to assess cumulative environmental effects in Saint John Harbour.

Samples were collected yearly (2018-2020) in Fall (October or November) at 6 reference sites (3 in inner harbour and 3 in outer harbour) as well as at 5-7 potential hotspot sites. Samples were collected using a 0.1 m2 Smith McIntyre grab sampler. Infaunal invertebrates were counted from a portion of the grab with a surface area of 321 cm2 and identified to species. Concentrations of contaminants (22 metals and other elements; polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [4 sites in 2018 only]) were measured in surface sediment (upper 5 cm). Percent organic content (loss on ignition (LOI) at 550 and 950oC), total organic carbon (calculated from LOI), percent moisture, and % composition by grain size Wentworth size classes of the sediment were determined. See Van Geest et al. (2015) for detailed field and laboratory methods.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Port of Saint John provided funding to collect this data. This project is part of the Coastal Environmental Baseline Program Initiative under the Oceans Protection Plan of Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

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Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

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Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors

Metadata Reference Date(s) November 10, 2021 (Publication)
November 10, 2021 (Revision)
Data Reference Date(s) October 31, 2018 (Creation)
October 01, 2021 (Publication)
October 01, 2021 (Revision)
Frequency of Update As Needed

Responsible Party 1
Affiliation
University of New Brunswick
Role
  • Distributor
  • Owner
Responsible Party 2
Name
Heather Hunt
Affiliation
University of New Brunswick
Email
hhunt@unb.ca
Role
Principal Investigator
Responsible Party 3
Name
Marie-Josee Maltais
Affiliation
University of New-Brunswick
Email
mmaltais@unb.ca
Role
Collaborator
Responsible Party 4
Name
Heather Hunt
Affiliation
University of New-Brunswick
Email
hhunt@unb.ca
Role
Custodian

Field Value
Ocean Variables Other
Scope Dataset
Status On Going
Maintenance Note Generated from https://cioos-siooc.github.io/metadata-entry-form
Spatial Extent { "coordinates": [ [ [ -66.099, 45.20167 ], [ -65.9685, 45.20167 ], [ -65.9685, 45.2738 ], [ -66.099, 45.2738 ], [ -66.099, 45.20167 ] ] ], "type": "Polygon" }
North Bounding Latitude 45.2738
South Bounding Latitude 45.20167
East Bounding Longitude -65.9685
West Bounding Longitude -66.099
Temporal Extent
Begin
2018-10-31
Vertical Extent
Min
0.0
Max
9.0
Default Locale English