Marine protists are single-celled planktonic creatures that form the base of the marine food web and perform important ecosystem services, including driving photosynthesis and the carbon and nitrogen cycles.
Scientists conducted laboratory experiments to learn more about particle emissions when bubbles on an oil slick burst. They observed that bubbles bursting on slicks containing crude oil and dispersant mixtures aerosolize micro-sized droplets (diameter is one thousandth of a millimeter) and nano-sized droplets (diameter is one billionth of a meter).
The Texas Gulf Coast is experiencing a rapid increase in oil refining and transport activities, which also increases the risk of spill-related impacts to its coastal bays and estuarine ecosystems.
Scientists generated breaking waves in the presence of various dispersant and oil ratios (DOR) using a custom-built wave tank to investigate how subsurface oil droplets evolve in a turbulent environment.
Grad Student Deng Investigates How Marine Microbes Move When Oil is Present – SEPTEMBER 19, 2019 Oil-water interfaces, such as those formed by marine oil spills or natural ocean oil seeps, are teeming with bacterial activity. Some bacterial species in those interfaces form biofilms that help break up oil, which enhances biodegradation. The interfaces themselves…
Scientist and author M. Mitchell Waldrop accompanied researchers, funded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, as they conducted the largest experimental simulation to-date of the Deepwater Horizon oil intrusion.
Scientists conducted laboratory experiments to investigate if copepod behavior can reshape the size frequency distribution of oil droplets.
Scientists developed a platform at environmentally-relevant scales to advance the study of oil-water interface interactions, biofilm formation, and particle dispersion.
The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) congratulates Dr. Joseph Katz on his election to the National Academy of Engineering 2019 class, one of the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer.
Oil is a complex mixture of chemicals with different degradation behaviors and toxicity levels. Understanding how the compounds in spilled oil, particularly toxic compounds, change with weathering is important to predicting oil’s persistence in the environment.