scholarly journals Persistent and substantial impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on deep-sea megafauna

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (8) ◽  
pp. 191164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig R. McClain ◽  
Clifton Nunnally ◽  
Mark C. Benfield
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
Important Species ◽  
Environmental Disasters ◽  
Coastal Impacts ◽  
Pelagic Food Webs ◽  
Commercially Important ◽  
Taxonomic Groups

The Deepwater Horizon spill is one of the largest environmental disasters with extensive impacts on the economic and ecological health of the Gulf of Mexico. Surface oil and coastal impacts received considerable attention, but the far larger oil spill in the deep ocean and its effects received considerably less examination. Based on 2017 ROV surveys within 500 m of the wellhead, we provide evidence of continued impacts on diversity, abundance and health of deep-sea megafauna. At locations proximal to the wellhead, megafaunal communities are more homogeneous than in unimpacted areas, lacking many taxonomic groups, and driven by high densities of arthropods. Degraded hydrocarbons at the site may be attracting arthropods. The scope of impacts may extend beyond the impacted sites with the potential for impacts to pelagic food webs and commercially important species. Overall, deep-sea ecosystem health, 7 years post spill, is recovering slowly and lingering effects may be extreme.

Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on deep-sea coral-associated sediment communities

2016 ◽  
Vol 561 ◽  
pp. 51-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
AWJ Demopoulos ◽  
JR Bourque ◽  
E Cordes ◽  
KM Stamler
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Oil Spill Clean Up Project

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Post
Keyword(s):  
Water Table ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
Environmental Disasters ◽  
Cooking Oil ◽  
Class Project ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Offshore Oil ◽  
Oil Spill Cleanup ◽  
States History

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oilrig sank in the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in an oil spill of 4.9 million barrels, one of the largest environmental disasters in United States history. In response to this disaster, the X Prize Foundation sponsored the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X Challenge, with a one million dollar top prize for engineers to develop better ways to clean up oil after an offshore oil spill. Inspired by the oil spill cleanup challenge, a class project was developed for students in a junior-level fluid mechanics course to develop and implement an oil-spill cleanup solution. Students had one semester to design and build an oil spill cleanup device. At the end of the semester final testing took place in a 20-foot long water table, which was filled with water 6 inches deep. Then for each team of 3–4 students 100 mL of cooking oil was dispersed into the water table, and they had 20 minutes to recover as much of the oil as they could. The grading for the project was based in part on the percentage of the oil the students could recover in the allotted time. The students employed a wide range of techniques, including skimmers, scoopers, and absorbers. The students also had to write a report explaining how their model solution in the water table could be scaled up to full-scale use in an actual offshore oil spill.

scholarly journals Growth rates and ages of deep-sea corals impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

2016 ◽  
Vol 129 ◽  
pp. 196-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy G. Prouty ◽  
Charles R. Fisher ◽  
Amanda W.J. Demopoulos ◽  
Ellen R.M. Druffel
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Growth Rates ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill ◽  
Deep Sea Corals

scholarly journals Effects of crude oil on survival and development in embryonated eggs in Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, 1896 (Decapoda, Portunidae)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelsie L. Kelly ◽  
Caz M. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Crude Oil ◽  
Blue Crab ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Callinectes Sapidus ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spawning Season ◽  
Blue Crabs ◽  
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill ◽  
Important Species

Blue crabs, Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, 1896, are ubiquitous along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. These organisms play an integral role in the ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), where not only are they a keystone species, but are also socioeconomically important. The survival of embryonated eggs is necessary to ensure adequate recruitment into the next generation. Because the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DWH) occurred during the peak of the blue crab spawning season, the incident likely impacted blue crab embryos. In order to assess the effect of oil on embryonic growth and development, we collected embryonated eggs from seven different female blue crabs from the GOM throughout the spawning season and exposed them to an oil concentration of 500 ppb (the approximate concentration of oil at the surface water near the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig). Exposure to oil at this concentration caused a significantly larger proportion of prezoeae versus zoeae to hatch from embryonated eggs in experiments lasting longer than 4 days. Exposure to oil did not significantly affect overall survival or development rate. The prezoeal stage is a little-studied stage of blue crab development. Though it may or may not be a normal stage of development, this stage has been found to occur in suboptimal conditions and has lower survival than zoeal stages. The larger proportion of prezoeae following prolonged exposure to oil thus indicates that crude oil at concentrations likely to be experienced by crabs after the DWH spill negatively impacted the development of blue crab embryos. In addition to providing insight into the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, this study sheds light on embryonic development in blue crabs, a critical, but poorly investigated phase of this important species’ life cycle.

scholarly journals Community response of deep-sea soft-sediment metazoan meiofauna to the Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill

2015 ◽  
Vol 528 ◽  
pp. 127-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
JG Baguley ◽  
PA Montagna ◽  
C Cooksey ◽  
JL Hyland ◽  
HW Bang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
Community Response ◽  
Soft Sediment ◽  
Metazoan Meiofauna

scholarly journals The Gulf of Mexico: An Overview

Oceanography ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-43
Author(s):  
Larry McKinney ◽  
◽  
John Shepherd ◽  
Charles Wilson ◽  
William Hogarth ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
Recreational Fishing ◽  
Environmental Disasters ◽  
Major Disaster ◽  
The Us ◽  
Large Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Hydrocarbon Reserves

The Gulf of Mexico is a place where the environment and the economy both coexist and contend. It is a resilient large marine ecosystem that has changed in response to many drivers and pressures that we are only now beginning to fully understand. Coastlines of the states that border the Gulf comprise about half of the US southern seaboard, and those states are capped by the vast Midwest. The Gulf drains most of North America and is both an economic keystone and an unintended waste receptacle. It is a renowned resource for seafood markets, recreational fishing, and beach destinations and an international maritime highway fueled by vast, but limited, hydrocarbon reserves. Today, more is known about the Gulf than was imagined possible only a few years ago. That gain in knowledge was driven by one of the greatest environmental disasters of this country’s history, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The multitude of response actions and subsequent funded research significantly contributed to expanding our knowledge and, perhaps most importantly, to guiding the work needed to restore the damage from that oil spill. Funding for further work should not wait for the next major disaster, which will be too late; progress must be maintained to ensure that the Gulf continues to be resilient.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document