Department of the Interior, National Biological Service, OAD-BA, Procurement Staff, 4401 North Fairfax Drive, Mail Stop 710, Arlington, VA 22203

B -- NORTHEASTERN GULF OF MEXICO COASTAL AND MARINE ECOSYSTEMS PROGRAM: ECOSYSTEM MONITORING, MISSISSIPPI/ALABAMA SHELF SOL 1445-ORFP-96-002 DUE 052296. Contact Joseph McHugh, Contracting Officer, 703/358-1801. The National Biological Services requires a study to monitor biological communities and environmental conditions at three distinct types of topographic features present along the Mississippi-Alabama outer continental shelf. These features include: 1) high profile pinnacles of 10-15 m relief; 2) medium relief, flattop features of approximately 5 m; 3) low relief hard bottoms of less than 5 m. Seasonal information shall be gathered regarding populations and diversity of biological organisms related to turbidity, zonations, and other physical environmental parameters. The study shall included quantitative and qualitative observations of reef morphology, as well as sessile organism growth rates and diversity, changes in dissolved oxygen and the nepheloid layer, and general community dynamics. (068)

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