Research facilities

The laboratories for the Marine Ecotoxicology Research Station (MERS) are located on the campus of Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi, in the Center for Coastal Studies. The laboratories are fully equipped for conducting a wide variety of marine toxicity tests with aqueous samples and sediments. A variety of research vessels are available to provide the necessary support for field experiments and sampling.

The primary research focus of MERS has been the development and evaluation of methods for assessing the quality of marine and estuarine sediments. New tests have been developed and used in numerous comprehensive sediment quality assessment surveys in partnership with the U.S. Navy, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Minerals Management Service, Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission, and others. We recently completed a major program with the U.S. Navy to develop a toxicity database for marine organisms with ordnance compounds (explosives and their degradation products) and to conduct toxicity identification evaluation (TIE) studies at Navy facilities in the Pacific Northwest. We also participated in the joint EMAP/BEST Western Pilot project, which includes toxicity tests with samples collected at 150 stations between Canada and Mexico along the west coast. Recent studies also include sediment quality assessment studies in Tampa Bay, Pensacola Bay, Choctawhatchee Bay, Apalachicola Bay, St. Andrew and Biscayne Bay, Florida; Sabine Lake, Galveston Bay, Lavaca Bay, Nueces Bay, and Corpus Christi Bay, Texas; Boston Harbor, Massachusetts; Charleston Harbor, South Carolina; St. Simonds Sound and Savanah River Estuary, Georgia; Puget Sound, Washington; Delaware Bay and Chesapeake Bay, Maryland; Long Island Sound and the New York Bight, New York; Hawaii; San Francisco Bay, California; Calcasieu Estuary, Louisiana. These studies identify areas of concern and provide an assessment of the overall condition of these bays. We are currently designing and constructing a Sediment Profile Imaging and Micro-sampling System (SPIMS) for assessing the quality of bedded sediments.

Drs. Carr and Nipper co-chaired a SETAC Technical Workshop on Porewater Toxicity Testing: Biological, Chemical and Ecological Considerations with a Review of Methods and Applications and Recommendations for Future Areas of Research, held in Pensacola, Florida, in March 2000. This workshop resulted in a book entitled “Porewater Toxicity Testing: Biological, Chemical and Ecological Considerations”, published by SETAC Press. A photograph of the workshop participants appears below.

The science staff of MERS is involved in a variety of international collaborations, recently having received scientists and Ph.D students from Brazil, Korea, New Zealand, Australia and Italy. Drs. Carr and Nipper have regularly been teaching a course on marine sediment ecotoxicology in the University of São Paulo, Brazil. They have an ongoing collaboration with this University, where Drs. Carr and Nipper are also a co-supervisors of Ph.D. students from the Oceanographic Institute. Drs. Carr and Nipper have recently visited Marinduque Island, Philippines, to conduct a preliminary sediment toxicity assessment with samples from a former copper mining area. Visit our images of international visitors and overseas activities.