Leveraging resources to better understand chemical exposures
A joint effort between the Southeast Climate Science Center (SECSC) and the UNC Superfund Research Program, led by Dr. Damian Shea, has led to the creation of the Southeast Global Change Monitoring Portal (GCMP).
The GCMP supports the efforts of multiple state and federal agencies and other organizations by providing a centralized, comprehensive catalog of observational networks associated with aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems in the southeastern United States. The Southeast GCMP region of interest encompasses all or part of several Landscape Conservation Cooperatives in the southeastern US and Caribbean.
While the Southeast Climate Science Center was, understandably, mostly interested in “climate” related stressors to ecosystems, Dr. Shea and his research group realized there was also a need to know more about “chemical” stressors in the same region.
“By leveraging resources from the SRP to enhance the USGS project, we could include a significant number of monitoring programs that have produced, and continue to produce, data on chemical exposure in the Southeast US,” remarked Shea.
While the portal will continue to evolve and grow, it is already an excellent resource to determine what chemical monitoring programs exist in the southeast and learn how to access the data.
“We are currently applying the information from the GCMP to locate additional sites in the southeast where we might deploy our passive sampling devices to further verify their utility in assessing various chemical risks,” said Shea.
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