The expanded footprint of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico deep-sea benthos.

Autor: Reuscher MG; Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, Texas, United States of America., Baguley JG; Department of Biology, University of Nevada-Reno, Reno, Nevada, United States of America., Montagna PA; Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, Texas, United States of America.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: PloS one [PLoS One] 2020 Jun 30; Vol. 15 (6), pp. e0235167. Date of Electronic Publication: 2020 Jun 30 (Print Publication: 2020).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0235167
Abstrakt: The 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout off the coast of Louisiana caused the largest marine oil spill on record. Samples were collected 2-3 months after the Macondo well was capped to assess damage to macrofauna and meiofauna communities. An earlier analysis of 58 stations demonstrated severe and moderate damage to an area of 148 km2. An additional 58 archived stations have been analyzed to enhance the resolution of that assessment and determine if impacts occurred further afield. Impacts included high levels of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in the sediment, low diversity, low evenness, and low taxonomic richness of the infauna communities. High nematode to copepod ratios corroborated the severe disturbance of meiofauna communities. Additionally, barium levels near the wellhead were very high because of drilling activities prior to the accident. A principal component analysis (PCA) was used to summarize oil spill impacts at stations near the Macondo well, and the benthic footprint of the DWH oil spill was estimated using Empirical Bayesian Kriging (EBK) interpolation. An area of approximately 263 km2 around the wellhead was affected, which is 78% higher than the original estimate. Particularly severe damages to benthic communities were found in an area of 58 km2, which is 142% higher than the original estimate. The addition of the new stations extended the area of the benthic footprint map to about twice as large as originally thought and improved the resolution of the spatial interpolation. In the future, increasing the spatial extent of sampling should be a top priority for designing assessment studies.
Competing Interests: I have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: Ships for sample collection was funded by British Petroleum. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors. The scientific results and conclusion of this publication, as well as any views or opinions expressed herein, are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the view of NOAA or any other natural resource Trustee for the BP/Deepwater Horizon NRDA.
Databáze: MEDLINE
Externí odkaz:
Nepřihlášeným uživatelům se plný text nezobrazuje