Students’ engagement with science that connects with something that is relevant in their lives can increase the meaningfulness of science application and help solidify its importance.
Technical advances in genomics since Deepwater Horizon have revealed the natural capacity of microbes to catalyze bioremediation of petroleum hydrocarbons.
April 2020 marks ten years since the tragic Deepwater Horizon incident in the Gulf of Mexico. It also marks a decade of oil spill research that followed funded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiate (GoMRI), resulting in more than 1,350 peer-reviews studies published so far, that are helping us understand the oil’s fate and impacts and be better prepared for future spills.
April 20, 2020 is the 10th anniversary of Deepwater Horizon, and scientists funded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) have been studying the oil spill’s impacts since then and providing knowledge that will help us be better prepared for future spills.
The unprecedented quantities of oil released during the Deepwater Horizon discharge and the chemical dispersants used during the response effort raised concerns about how Gulf of Mexico ecosystems would be affected.
Scientists analyzed radiocarbon isotopes, which identify the source of carbons in compounds such as oil and methane, and applied those “fingerprints” to quantify recovery of deep-seafloor sediment contaminated by Deepwater Horizon.
The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) congratulates Dr. Joel Kostka on his election as a 2019 American Academy of Microbiology (AAM) Fellow.
Scientists adapted high-resolution sampling and analyses methods to assess Gulf of Mexico sediment core samples collected from 2010-2016 and identify sedimentation changes that followed Deepwater Horizon.
Researchers examined the isotopic composition of single-celled organisms (foraminifera) in seafloor sediment for evidence of the documented marine oil snow event that followed Deepwater Horizon.
Scientists analyzed weathered and fresh Macondo oil to learn about oil products resulting from microbial degradation and photochemical reactions. They observed that 48 months after the Deepwater Horizon spill, less than 1 percent of oil remained in marsh sediments collected from heavily-impacted sites; however, it was still 400 times greater than sites with moderate-to-no observed oiling.