U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Contracts Unit, 100 Alabama Street,S.W., Atlanta, GA 30303

B -- MACROINFAUNAL SAMPLE ANALYSIS SOL EPA98027 DUE 061298 POC Nancy Watkins -- please fax request of RFQ (404) 562-8370 EPA Region 4 will collect benthic infaunal core samples. No Contractors assistance will be required during sampling operations. Fifteen replicate cores will be obtained at each of ten stations and 30 replicate cores at each of two stations for a maximum of 210 samples for analysis. Cores will consist of a hand-held cylindrical corer (area=0.0079m2). The samples will be sieved through a 0.5mm mesh screen and preserved with 10% formalin prior to shipment to the contractor. Two hand cores will be collected by EPA at each station for sediment texture analysis. Sediment texture will be determined by EPA and the results will be forwarded to the contractor for interpretation and incorporation into the report. The two stations with 30 replicates will be evaluated first by the contractor to verify the number of replicates needed to adequately represent the number of unique taxa in the benthic assemblage at the study area. The data from these stations will be evaluated using species-area curves and the 75% criteria. A verbal report followed by confirmation letter of the species saturation curve sample analysis will be provided to EPA. Work will not proceed on additional samples until discussion between the Contractor and EPa has occured and a decision has been made on the number of replicates per station to be analyzed. MACROINFAUNAL SAMPLE ANALYSIS All macroinvertebrates will be sorted and identified to the lowest possible identification level, which in most cases will be to a species level. The wet-weight biomass of major taxonomic groups (e.g. Polchaeta, Mollusca, Crustacea) wil be measured for each macroinfaunal sample. DATA ANALYSIS A data summary report will be provided for each station consisting of taxonomic species list and benthic community parameter information. The following numberical indices will be calculated for each sample replicate. -- Infaunal abundance (total number of individuals per station) -- Infaunal density (total number of individuals per square meter) -- Species richness (total number of taxa represented in a given station and by Margalef's D) -- Taxa diversity (Pielou's Index H') -- Evenness (Pielou's Index J') Macroinfaunal data (from this survey and the 1995 survey) will be graphically and statistically analyzed to identify any differences in number of taxa and density between stations (e.g. stations within the disposal area and those outside the disposal area and those collected in the 1995 pre disposal survey). Classification analysis will included the Bray-Curtis similarity measure (or equivalent) and hierarchical clustering of similarity values using the group-average sorting strategy. All analysis will be consistent with the 1995 survey analysis. DATA INTERPRETATION Intrepretation will consist of habitat characterization (water depth, salinity, sediment texture) and benthic community characterization including faunal composition, abundance, and community structure, numerical classisfication analysis and taxa assemblages. Discussion will include a comparison of samples collected as part of the 1995 and 1998 surveys. The final report will also include as an appendix the phylogenetic list of macroinvertebrate taxa for the survey. (0148)

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