Background and Software

The information provided in the Contaminant Exposure and Effects-Terrestrial Vertebrates (CEE-TV) Database profiles available geo-referenced information on contaminant exposure and effects in terrestrial vertebrates along the U. S. Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts (including Hawaii and Alaska ) and the Great Lakes . Sources of data are provided on a separate reference list. The database utilizes Microsoft's Access 2000 for Windows. The database contains 18,567 records and is approximately 25 MB.

Sources of Information

a. Published data for the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf Coasts and the Great Lakes were obtained mainly through computerized literature searches on Fish and Wildlife Review (key words: metals, pollution, pesticides, lead, and mercury), BIOSIS [key words: concept code 37015 (public health; environmental health-ai), concept code 22506 (toxicology-environmental and industrial), and nonhuman vertebrates], Agricola (Key words: individual species name) and Toxline (key words: pollution, state name and species name).

b. Unpublished biomonitoring data (research manuscripts in press and unpublished reports of state government) were obtained from written requests for information.

c. Published and unpublished data on animals that presumably died of contaminant exposure that are documented in the Environmental Protection Agency Ecological Incident Information System. Only data in the "highly probable" or "probable" categories were included. Data from animals intentionally poisoned were excluded.

d. Necropsy information that included environmental contaminant data (pesticide or metal concentrations, cholinesterase inhibition), was obtained from the National Wildlife Health Center of the U.S. Geological Survey (Diagnostic and Epizootic Databases), the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (Wildlife Pathology Unit), Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research Oil Spill Response History and the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study of the University of Georgia.

e. Exposure and effects data for animals exposed to petrochemicals following the Exxon Valdez oil spill from Natural Resources Damage Assessment (NRDA) Reports obtained from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council web pages (http://www.oilspill.state.ak.us/).

f. DDE, DDD, DDT, and some PCB data gathered from typed testimony reports prepared for evidence in court case against Montrose Corp. for DDE contamination in the Southern California Bight ecosystem.

Description of Data Field

The following section describes the data entry fields in CEE-TV. The underlined words reported the field headings as they appear on printouts.

Field 1 - Unique consecutive 5-6 digit, first describing the State (digit 1 or digits 1 and 2: State ID codes below) and then describing the record number (digits 2, 3, 4, and 5 or digits 3, 4, 5, and 6).

Fields 2-6 - Taxonomic information

Common and scientific names from source documents may have been changed to reflect the most recent taxonomic information available. All taxonomy for avian species is based on The American Ornithologists' Union Checklist of North American Birds (7th Edition, 1998, and the 42nd and 43rd Supplements to the Checklist, as published in The Auk 117: 847-858, 2000; 119:897-906). Taxonomic information for other species is based on the federal governments Integrated Taxonomic Information System (http://www.itis.usda.gov/access.html).

Field 2 - Common name for species.

Field 3 - Genus/species for each animal.

Field 4 - Taxonomic family of species

Field 5 - Taxonomic order of species

Field 6 - Taxonomic class of species (Aves, Reptilia, Amphibia, or Mammalia)

Fields 7 and 8 - Initiation Year (Year From) and Completion Year (Year To) during which the sample in the record was collected. The format for this field is "YYYY" (e.g., 1998). If this field is blank, the information could not be found in the report.

Field 9 - Season, Month or Day during which the sample was collected (Date). If this field is blank, the information could not be found in the report.

Field 10 - The "specific" name of the location (e.g., Island , Wildlife Refuge, City, Town, County) where the sample was collected. Occasionally, multiple sites have the identical specific name (e.g., Maine has 19 sites named Black Island ). An asterisk denotes that a specific location is not known, and the State or Province Capital, County Seat or other locations have been assigned as the collection site. If a vague state or province location is given, the coordinates for the state or province capital are used for geo-referencing (Atlantic Flyway*). If only a county within the state or province is given (e.g., Carroll County , MD ) and specific coordinates are not given, the county name would appear in this field (i.e., Carroll Co.*) and coordinates for the County Seat would appear in Fields 14 and 15. If a county within the state or province and specific coordinates are given in the source, the county name would appear in this field (i.e., Carroll County ) and the coordinates given would appear in Fields 14 and 15.

Field 11 - The State or Province (using a two letter abbreviation) from which the sample was collected.

Field 12 - The Estuary from which the sample was collected.

Field 13 - Hydrologic Unit Cataloguing (HUC) Code contains the USGS Watershed code

Fields 14 and 15 - The latitude and longitude of the collection site. When the coordinates are not reported in the source information, a desk top mapping program (DeLorme MapExpert version 2.0) and/or the USGS Geographic Names Information System (http://geonames.usgs.gov/gnishome.html) or the Canadian Geographical Names website (http://geonames.nrcan.gc.ca/index_e.php) was employed to approximate the site coordinates.

Field 16 - Sample matrix (e.g., carcass, egg, feather, liver) that was analyzed.

Field 17 - Sample size.

Fields 18-31 - Organochlorine contaminant concentration. Where possible, organochlorine contaminant concentrations were reported in ug/g in order to facilitate database searches.

Field 32: Concentration units for organochlorine contaminants (OC Units; unit abbreviations below).

Fields 33-50 - PCB congener concentration

Field 51: Concentration units for PCB congeners (PCBS Units; unit abbreviations below).

Fields 52-69 - Dioxin or dibenzofuran concentration.