One such vehicle, called the Autonomous Benthic Explorer (ABE), can be dropped into a plume, where it zooms around in the water column and maps a 5-km-square grid of the chemical signal.

Researchers have developed models to assess the impact of mining discharges by monitoring the health of benthic invertebrate species that feed on the bottom of lakes and rivers.

In addition to a protracted benthic embryonic period due to annual minimum water temperatures experienced by embryos, the timing of spawning results in young life stages of tomcod being a key prey item for major resource species and other ecologically important species within the lower estuary in spring and early summer (Dew and Hecht 1994).