Cook Plant preoperational studies 1970 / John C. Ayers ... [et al.].

It now appears that the techniques which have maintained Pontoporeia and
Mysis in the laboratory are sufficient for the maintenance of most, if not
all, of the organisms of the benthic community.
We will be starting, in April, controlled laboratory experiments in
which the whole macroorganism benthic community of the Cook Plant area will
be maintained in the presence of, and absence of, radioactive Inotopes for
the purpose of determining whether there is in the community any organism.
more sensitive to (a better concentrator of) radioactive isotopes than Pontoporeia is of Zn-65.
With our present knowledge of the distribution of the benthos off the
Cook Plant, it is evident that substantial quantities of macrobenthic organisms
can be collected and transported alive, with their native sediment, to the
Ann Arbor laboratory.
We expect to be able to collect, transport, and maintain quantities of
Pontoporeia, Mysis, Sphaeriids, Tendipedids and Oligochaetes.
The radioisotopes to which these organisms will be exposed are expected
to be (not in order of interest or importance): tellurium, barium, cerium,
cesium, strontium, manganese, zinc, iron, iodine, mercury, antimony, and
chromium.
The search for the most sensitive organism will be concentrated in the
benthic community, for these organisms are stay-at-homes compared to the
water-borne and drifting phytoplankton, the weakly-swimming and drifting
zooplankton, and the migratory fishes. The periphyton (attached algae) and
macrophyton (rooted aquatic plants) are also stay-at-homes, but neither is a
demonstrated part of the local biota on the wave-beaten and shifting sand
bottom of the immediate Cook Plant area.

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