| The Armand Bayou watershed, which includes Armand Bayou, Horsepen Bayou, and Mud Lake, is located in Harris County, Texas, and is a unit of the greater Galveston Bay watershed. The Sediment Quality Triad (SQT) approach was used for this study to identify areas in the system where sediment contamination may be linked to ecosystem degradation, to compare the sediment quality of the three waterbodies, and to evaluate the system with respect to sediment quality guidelines. Samples were collected from four stations in each of the three waterbodies. The study included chemical and physical characterization of the sediment, benthic macroinvertebrate community structure analysis, laboratory toxicity testing, and overlying water quality testing. Data analysis included analysis of variance (ANOVA), principal components analysis (PCA), Spearman correlation analysis and numerical rank scoring of the sampling stations. The data analysis indicated that Horsepen Bayou is the least impacted and Mud Lake the most impacted relative to Armand Bayou. |
