How did City of Austin scientists conduct biological studies?
City of Austin biologists conducted laboratory and field studies to evaluate the effects of sealcoated parking lots on aquatic communities in area streams. These studies included toxicity testing in controlled laboratory experiments that exposed organisms to sediment spiked with coal-tar and asphalt-based sealcoat (left photo); controlled experiments that used aquariums with diverse natural biological communities to which sealcoat was added (middle photo); and field assessments of aquatic communities in streams upstream and downstream from inflows of runoff from sealcoated parking lots (right photo).
