Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory National Institute of…

Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology                           Energy and Environmental Technologies


Environmental Specimen Bank Activities
Environmental specimen banking is the long-term preser-
vation of representative environmental specimens for de-
ferred analysis and evaluation.        A systematic well-
designed specimen bank program is not only a valuable
component of real-time monitoring and basic research, but
it also enables investigators to extend their research into
the past and provides for future verification of analytical
results. Formal environmental specimen banks are recog-
nized internationally as integral parts of long-term envi-
ronmental monitoring and research.

P.R. Becker, R.S. Pugh, M.B. Ellisor, A.J. Moors,
B.J. Porter, J.R. Kucklick, S.J. Christopher, S.S.
Vander Pol, R.D. Day, W.C. Davis, J.M. Keller, D.
Point, A. Guichard, J.R. Flanary, J.E. Yordy, C.E.
Bryan, M.M. Schantz, G.C. Turk, and S.A. Wise
(Div. 839)



N    IST maintains two facilities for the cryogenic banking
     of environmental specimens collected as part of ongo-
ing research and monitoring programs of other government
agencies. Established in 1979, the National Biomonitor-
ing Specimen Bank (NBSB) is located at the NIST Center
for Neutron Research, Gaithersburg, Maryland campus. A
second facility, the Marine Environmental Specimen Bank
(Marine ESB), was established by NIST in 2002 at the
Hollings Marine Laboratory (HML), Charleston, South
Carolina. The Marine ESB is devoted to the cryogenic
banking of marine and coastal environmental specimens.         Tissue samples for banking are collected from individual
The major agency supporters of the Marine ESB are the          stranded animals, mass strandings, and animals inciden-
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration                tally taken in commercial fishing operations; as part of
(NOAA) and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI).          unusual mortality event investigations; from Alaska Native
                                                               subsistence hunts; and as part of on-going live-capture and
The NIST environmental specimen banks include well-            release studies of marine mammal population health. At
developed banking protocols, computerized sample track-        present, NIST maintains 3,017 tissue samples collected
ing (chain-of-custody) systems, maintenance of many            from 1,075 individuals representing 43 species of marine
forms of data associated with original specimens, and large    mammals from throughout U.S. coastal waters, including
investments in state-of-the-art facilities and equipment       Alaskan. Since establishing the Marine ESB, NIST has
required to store specimens over relatively long periods of    used its banking expertise to develop protocols and to col-
time. Both banks emphasize cryogenic storage using ultra-      lect and archive blood and blubber samples for NOAA's
cold (­80 °C) electric freezers and liquid nitrogen vapor      ongoing bottlenose dolphin health assessment studies, to
(­150 °C) freezers with continuously monitored security        collect eggs as part of a DOI environmental monitoring
systems.                                                       program on Alaska seabird colonies, and to collect eggs
                                                               and feathers as part of a DOI peregrine falcon monitoring
The National Marine Mammal Tissue Bank, which was              program. To date, blood and blubber have been collected
established by federal legislation in 1992, is maintained by   from 364 bottlenose dolphins, 1,031 eggs have been ar-
NIST for the National Marine Fisheries Service and the         chived from 5 species of arctic seabirds throughout Alaska,
Fish and Wildlife Service as a component of the NBSB           and 102 samples of eggs and feathers have been collected
and Marine ESB, with the Marine ESB providing the lead.        from the peregrine falcon program.
                                                              phenyl ethers (PBDEs) and hexabromochlorododecane
From 1985 until 1992, the NBSB provided for the banking       (HBCD), organomercury, butyltin compounds, and per-
of fish tissues, sediments, mussels, and oysters as part of   fluorinated compounds. Banked Alaska marine mammal
NOAA's National Status and Trends Program. During this        specimens were also accessed in 2006 for stable isotope
period, 194 sediments, 197 mussels/oysters, and 31 fish       and fatty acid analyses in a study investigating food web
tissue specimens from 300 U.S. coastal sites were             changes that might be associated with climate changes.
banked. Banking for this program ended in 1992 when
NOAA funding support ended. Realizing the value of the        Environmental specimen banking was recognized in No-
banking component of this program, some funding was           vember 2005 by the International Environmental Specimen
restored and banking of mussels and oysters began again in    Bank Symposium, held in Charleston, South Carolina, and
2005 and continued through 2006, with the lead being pro-     at the Hollings Marine Laboratory. The three-day sympo-
vided by the Marine ESB. Since 2005, mussel and oyster        sium and half-day workshop attracted 80 participants rep-
collections have been banked from 73 sites from through-      resenting 8 countries (Germany, Japan, Canada, Sweden,
out the coastal U.S.                                          France, Finland, South Africa, and the U.S.). Selected
                                                              papers based on presentations at the symposium were pub-
  The Hollings Marine Laboratory (HML) is operated by         lished in a special issue of the Journal of Environmental
  the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science              Monitoring (Volume 8, Number 8, August 2006).
  (NCCOS), with a mission to "provide science and
  biotechnology applications to sustain, protect, and         Impact: The establishment of the Marine ESB in associa-
  restore coastal ecosystems, with emphasis on links          tion with the HML has provided a renewed interest and
  between environmental condition and the health of           expansion in specimen banking as part of marine environ-
  marine organisms and humans." HML partnership or-           mental monitoring and health research. Additional speci-
  ganizations include NIST, the National Oceanic and          men types have been added to the bank and additional
  Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the South Caro-          sponsors have contributed to the expansion of the banking
  lina Department of Natural Resources, the Medical           program with primary interest in use of banked specimens
  University of South Carolina, and the College of            for investigating newly emerging environmental contami-
  Charleston.                                                 nants.

                                                              Future Plans: NIST will continue to work with HML
The primary function of the NIST environmental specimen       partners and other federal agencies and partners to expand
banks is to provide samples for retrospective analysis. A     environmental specimen banking activities. NIST is
major effort at the HML involves the identification and       working with these partners to add serum banking as part
investigation of newly emerging contaminants of concern       of aquatic animal disease investigations. Existing
in the marine environment. The banked specimens provide       specimens archived in the NBSB and Marine ESB are
a valuable resource for investigating temporal environ-       being identified for future work to measure new
mental trends in concentrations of such compounds and for     contaminants of interest as related to issues on ocean and
determining patterns of past exposure in marine biota.        human health.
Geographic and time-trend studies using banked marine
mammal tissues and seabird eggs are being conducted for
brominated flame retardants, such as polybrominated di-