Block Island Sound

Data on the concentration of hydrocarbons from gasoline contamination in media other than air, water, and soil are very limited. This is due, at least in part, to the difficulty in tracing the source of hydrocarbon contamination in other environmental media such as food, fish and shellfish, and terrestrial plants and animals. Samples of bivalve mollusks collected 2 days following an accidental spill of gasoline into Block Island Sound, Rhode Island, contained low levels of gasoline compounds (Dimock et al. 1980). However, there were no adequate control samples by which to confirm background levels of these compounds in the shellfish, so it is not certain that the contamination resulted from the spill. 

Bowman, M.J., Esias, W.E. and Schnitzer, M.B. (1981) Tidal stirring and the distribution of phytoplankton in Long Island and Block Island Sounds. Journal of Marine Research, 39, 587-603. 

Le Lecheur, E. A., and Sammons, J. C. (1932). Tides and currents in Long Island Sound and Block Island Sound. U. S. Coast Geodetic Surv.. Spec. Publ. 174. 

Fig. I. Map of Long Island and Block Island Sounds showing the locationsof tide gauges,anemometers,and current meters. The tide gauges were at New London (NL), New Haven (NH), Bridgeport (Bpt), Port Jefferson (PJ), New Rochelle (NR), Montauk (M), and Sandy Hook (SH). Newport (Np) is 67 km east of NL and not shown on the map. Current meters were operated at locations J, D, S, X, and Y a water level recorder was also operated at J. Stratford Point is St. Anemometer locations are shown by open circles. Power calculations are done for the section between A and B. 

Riley, G. A. (1952) Hydrography of Long Island and Block Island Sounds. Bull. Bingham Oceanogr. Collect. 13, 5-39. 

Table I showed that carbohydrates are an important part of the dissolved organic matter in subsurface seawater. Sieburth et al. (1976) have measured the concentrations of mono- and polysaccharides in screen microlayer and subsurface seawater samples from Block Island Sound and the North Atlantic. They find on average that 21% of the microlayer DOC and 16% of the subsurface DOC is accounted for by total carbohydrates. Table VIII gives their average results for nine samples, all of which were collected on slick-...

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