Grad Student Pandya Investigates How Wind and Waves Influence Airborne Transport of Oil
Hydrocarbons from oil slicks floating on the ocean’s surface can be aerosolized by evaporation, breaking waves and bursting bubbles.
Grad Student Dandekar Examines How Ocean Layers Affect Microbial Motion Towards Oil
Hydrocarbon-degrading microbes living in ocean environments consumed and metabolized oil droplets following Deepwater Horizon, which significantly influenced the oil’s fate in the Gulf of Mexico.
Grad Student Jacketti Enhances Modeling Capability to Track Sunken Oil
Oil spilled in the ocean can sink to the seafloor due to its high density or by attaching to floating particulate matter, as happened during the Marine Oil Snow Sedimentation and Flocculent Accumulation (MOSSFA) event following Deepwater Horizon.
Grad Student Schwaab Investigates How Tuna and Billfish Respond to Oil
Marine ecosystems provide many valuable resources for humans, including seafood and petroleum. Conservation policies that protect marine ecosystems, especially pollution and petroleum-related policies, depend on accurate scientific data about the ways different marine species experience pollution.
Grad Student Bickham Helps Capture A Clearer Picture of How Corals Respond to Oil
Coral reefs provide food, shelter, and habitat to thousands of organisms living in the Gulf of Mexico. However, their vulnerability to physical and toxicological damage increases corals’ risk during environmental disturbances, particularly in shallow water where dangers from coastline proximity include wastewater pollution, moving sediment, salinity and nutrient changes, scavengers, and boating and fishing activities.
Grad Student Wigren Shows It Takes Guts to Explore How Oil Affects Fish’s Microbiomes
The microbial community living in fish’s gastrointestinal tracts, also called the gut microbiome, are vital to their developing immune systems and can influence behaviors such as foraging.
Grad Student Woodyard Assesses Vulnerability of Hundreds of Fish Species to Oil Exposure
Following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, resource managers recognized the need for species-specific fish risk assessments to help identify which organisms and habitats would be most affected.
Grad Student Leftwich Unites Dolphin Research and Secondary Education
Kendal Leftwich conducts acoustic research assessing how northern Gulf of Mexico dolphin populations changed and recovered over time to help researchers better understand the health of dolphin species living in affected areas.
Grad Student Snider Examines Seaside Sparrows Diet for Food Web Impacts from Oiling
Seaside Sparrows live and forage in coastal Gulf of Mexico marshlands, some of which were oiled following the Deepwater Horizon incident. Sparrows in these oiled marshes likely ingested invertebrates that were also exposed to oil. Allison Snider uses DNA analyses to investigate potential long-term changes in the diets of Seaside Sparrows following Deepwater Horizon.
Grad Student Quas Analyzes Sediment Grain Size to Characterize Oil Behavior
Oil droplets can attach to tiny sediment particles suspended in the water column, causing them to sink to the seafloor where they can linger for a long time. Sediment grain size influences if and how oil droplets are resuspended into the water column.