Leslie Smith – Page 88 – Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative

UF Researchers Find Residue From BP Spill

September 25, 2014

On the surface, it appears that the dispersants used to break up the 200 million gallons of oil spilled following the Deepwater Horizon explosion of 2010 did their job.

Latest Edition of GoMRI Newsletter Now Available – Fall Issue 2014

September 25, 2014

We are pleased to share the fall 2014 issue of the GoMRI newsletter. We hope you continue to find it a useful way to keep up with the GoMRI research community’s activities.

Dave Christiansen (left) and Garrett Kehoe (right) pose with their beloved but shambling boat trailer, which lost two of its four wheels during a data collection trip from Austin to Galveston Bay. (Photo credit: Matt Rayson)

Grad Student Christiansen’s Preemptive Research Enhances Galveston Bay Spill Response

September 19, 2014

David Christiansen is dedicated to investigating water movement and using those findings to improve local water systems.

Students and post-doctoral researchers from the University of Georgia, the University of North Carolina, the University of California and the University of Southern Mississippi collect water samples from the niskin bottles on the CTD rosette for methane and other geochemical analyses. Lead author Melitza Crespo-Medina is on the far bottom left. (Photo by Samantha Joye)

Study Identifies Highly-Efficient Methane-Eating Microbe Present after Oil Spill

September 16, 2014

From March-December 2010 during ten research cruises covering over 105,000 square kilometers, scientists documented the fate and dynamics of Deepwater Horizon methane emissions around the blowout site.

Marine chemist Chris Reddy talking with his high school “colleagues” at a Florida beach. (Photo provided by Deep-C)

Reddy Demystifies Oil Degradation and Fingerprinting in Educational Videos

September 10, 2014

Biodegradation? Chromatography? While scientists toss these terms around with no problem, they can sound like a foreign language to others.

An oiled Louisiana marsh shoreline as it appeared in the summer of 2011. (Photo from Linda Hooper-Bui)

Study Estimates Decades-Long Persistence of Harmful Hydrocarbons in Marshes

September 4, 2014

Louisiana State University scientists assessed wetland soils for changes in oil compound levels before and after oil from the Deepwater Horizon blowout reached Louisiana marshes.

A Seaside Sparrow shown in its natural marsh habitat. (Photo credit: Phil Stouffer)

BioScience Features GoMRI-Funded Research on Oil Spill Impacts

September 3, 2014

The September 2014 issue of BioScience features seven peer-reviewed articles authored by GoMRI-funded scientists and engineers discussing key phenomena occurring at the time of the Macondo blowout.

In 2011 onboard the R/V Endeavor, Tingting Yang with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill works in the vessel’s web lab with sediment and water samples taken from the Gulf of Mexico. (Photo provided by T. Yang)

Study Identifies Oil Degraders that Stand Ready for Hydrocarbon Inputs

September 2, 2014

Using high-resolution DNA sequencing of specific marker genes to analyze microbial community composition, scientists tracked the diversity and abundance of water-column bacteria before and after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

This Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper with an external lesion was caught in 2011. (Photo provided by S. Murawski)

Study Finds Concurrent Rise and Fall of Fish Lesions and Oil Contamination

August 28, 2014

Florida scientists analyzed over 7,400 Gulf of Mexico fish representing 103 species for skin lesions after fishermen reported diseased fish after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Shelby Lyons (left, undergraduate student) and Rachel Simister (right, postdoc at Haverford) in the field collecting oiled samples. (Photo credit: H. White)

Study Shows Dispersant Lingered in Gulf Four Years after Oil Spill

August 27, 2014

Scientists from Haverford College and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution investigated the presence of dispersants following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.