Development of a Basin-Wide Contaminants Plan for Pallid Sturgeon

Pallid sturgeon experts and toxicologists from within the Missouri River and Mississippi River basins are completing a landscape-level analysis of contaminants and their exposure to and effects on the endangered pallid sturgeon, Scaphirhynchus albus. The end product will be a Basin-Wide Contaminants Assessment for Pallid Sturgeon (Assessment). The Pallid Sturgeon Recovery Plan identifies environmental contaminants as a potential threat to the recovery of pallid sturgeon. Little to no natural recruitment of pallid sturgeon occurs in the upper and middle reaches of their range. Sturgeon are particularly susceptible to persistent bioaccumulating pollutants because they are long-lived, late-maturing, and benthically-oriented. Although contaminant effects on pallid sturgeon are poorly understood, there is growing evidence that pallid sturgeon early life stages and reproduction are sensitive to adverse effects of such environmental contaminants as pesticides, elemental contaminants, organochlorines, and hormonally active compounds. The Assessment discusses 1) the contaminants of concern in each region of the species’ range, 2) what is currently known about contaminant effects on sturgeon with special emphasis on pallid sturgeon, 3) hypothesis-driven research needs to determine the effects of environmental contaminants on pallid sturgeon recovery, and 4) development of geographic information system data layers for individual contaminant data points for sediment, tissue, and water quality “hotspots” throughout important pallid sturgeon habitat.