ABSTRACT
The research effort in the northern Gulf of Mexico is based on written, peer-reviewed protocols for all field and laboratory operations. Water quality and biological analyses have been taken by personnel from the Center for Aquatic Research and Resource Management (CARRMA, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida) and Environmental Planning & Analysis, Inc. (Tallahassee, Florida) with additional work carried out at a series of laboratories in various countries. Water quality methods and analyses and specific biological methods have been continuously certified through the Quality Assurance Section of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (Comprehensive QAP 940128 and QAP 920101). Various methods that have been used to take field information and run laboratory analyses have been published in the reviewed literature. This includes the following: Livingston et al., 1974, 1976, 1997, 1998a,b; Livingston, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1982, 1984a,b, 1985a, 1987c, 1988, 1992, 1997a; Flemer et al., 1997.
