Grad Student Jasperse Examines Oil Spill Effects on Marsh Fish and Dolphins
Following Deepwater Horizon, researchers have been conducting multi-year studies on the health of Gulf of Mexico marine life.
Following Deepwater Horizon, researchers have been conducting multi-year studies on the health of Gulf of Mexico marine life.
The Deepwater Horizon incident occurred at 1500 m depth, where the pressure is approximately 15 MPa, but little is known about how such high pressure affects the metabolic processes involved with oil biodegradation for bacteria that live there.
Scientists used next-generation sequencing to analyze deep-sea corals following the Deepwater Horizon incident.
Researchers conducted mesocosm experiments that examined how juvenile eastern oysters respond to salinity variations in the presence of oil and dispersed oil.
A new study of the Deepwater Horizon response showed that massive quantities of chemically engineered dispersants injected at the wellhead — roughly 1,500 meters (4,921 feet) beneath the surface — were unrelated to the formation of the massive deepwater oil plume.
When the Deepwater Horizon incident occurred, not much was known about how conditions in the deep sea would affect oil biodegradation. Juan Viamonte uses high-pressure reactors that simulate conditions at depth to observe microbial degradation and help predict what might happen should another deep-ocean oil spill occur.
Scientists conducted light-exposure experiments using Macondo oil and Corexit dispersant and ran model simulations to investigate how photo-chemical weathering (oxidation) affects dispersant effectiveness in oil spill response.
Researchers analyzed an enhanced formulation of a gel-like surfactant encased in a compact buoyant pod for oil spill remediation.
Researchers conducted laboratory wave tank experiments to investigate how plunging breaking waves affect the concentration of particulate and gaseous emissions from oil slicks.
Eight years after Deepwater Horizon, we reflect on the extraordinary establishment of the largest coordinated scientific endeavor around an ocean event – the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) – to understand, respond to, and mitigate impacts from this and future oil spills.