ABSTRACT
If offshore oil and gas activities have any long-term impacts in marine environments, those impacts would probably be manifested in the benthos and, particularly, in the sedentary benthic populations. Such impacts would be related to the transport of contaminated particulate material from the water column to the benthos. Chemical contaminants may be on solid particles as part of source material, or they may become sorbed to particles. Resultant biological impacts would then be related directly to: 1) the change in sediment texture or habitat, 2) the bioavailability of these chemicals and 3) the residence time of the pollutant substrate or chemical in the system. The residence time is determined by those processes which physically remove the pollutants from the system (e.g., resuspension or burial) as well as those processes which degrade the sedimentassociated chemicals and render them less harmful or less available.
