Nature & Environment
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill is Still Impacting Coral Communities in the Gulf
Catherine Griffin
First Posted: Jul 29, 2014 08:11 AM EDT
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused devastation in its wake. Even today, ecosystems are still feeling its impacts. Now, scientists have found two additional coral communities showing signs of damage from the oil spill.
"The footprint of the impact of the spill on coral communities is both deeper and wider than previous data indicated," said Charles Fisher, one of the researchers, in a news release. "This study very clearly shows that multiple coral communities, up to 22 kilometers from the spill site and at depths over 1800 meters, were impacted by the spill."
In order to determine whether coral communities had been impacted by the spill or not, the researchers used the current conditions at a coral community that was known to have been impacted by the spill in 2010. This community served as a model "fingerprint" for gauging the spill's impact on newly discovered coral community.
Corals are particularly vulnerable to oil spills. Unlike other creatures, they form a mineralized skeleton that can last for years. This skeleton can retain the evidence and damage that oil caused long after it's disappeared from the surrounding waters. This means that corals can serve as an indicator species for tracking the impact of environmental disasters.
In this case, the scientists set their sights on coral communities at depths of over 1000 meters. They used 3D seismic data from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in order to identify 488 potential coral habitats around the spill site. From this list, they chose 29 sites that were most likely to contain corals impacted by the spill. Then, the researchers used towed camera systems in order to examine the sites.
"When we compared these images with our example of known oil damage, all the signs were present providing clear evidence in two of the newly discovered coral communities of the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill," said Fisher.
In fact, the researchers found that the sites were not only impacted by the spill, but that some were entangled with commercial fishing line. This reveals that the Gulf is being greatly impacted by human activities, which could negatively affect coral ecosystems.
The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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First Posted: Jul 29, 2014 08:11 AM EDT
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused devastation in its wake. Even today, ecosystems are still feeling its impacts. Now, scientists have found two additional coral communities showing signs of damage from the oil spill.
"The footprint of the impact of the spill on coral communities is both deeper and wider than previous data indicated," said Charles Fisher, one of the researchers, in a news release. "This study very clearly shows that multiple coral communities, up to 22 kilometers from the spill site and at depths over 1800 meters, were impacted by the spill."
In order to determine whether coral communities had been impacted by the spill or not, the researchers used the current conditions at a coral community that was known to have been impacted by the spill in 2010. This community served as a model "fingerprint" for gauging the spill's impact on newly discovered coral community.
Corals are particularly vulnerable to oil spills. Unlike other creatures, they form a mineralized skeleton that can last for years. This skeleton can retain the evidence and damage that oil caused long after it's disappeared from the surrounding waters. This means that corals can serve as an indicator species for tracking the impact of environmental disasters.
In this case, the scientists set their sights on coral communities at depths of over 1000 meters. They used 3D seismic data from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in order to identify 488 potential coral habitats around the spill site. From this list, they chose 29 sites that were most likely to contain corals impacted by the spill. Then, the researchers used towed camera systems in order to examine the sites.
"When we compared these images with our example of known oil damage, all the signs were present providing clear evidence in two of the newly discovered coral communities of the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill," said Fisher.
In fact, the researchers found that the sites were not only impacted by the spill, but that some were entangled with commercial fishing line. This reveals that the Gulf is being greatly impacted by human activities, which could negatively affect coral ecosystems.
The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone