Benthic taxa as potential indicators of a deep-sea oil spill

Washburn, Travis; Rhodes, Adelaide; Montagna, Paul A.

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2016.07.045

Cited by 41 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…The calculations in the present study do not take into account environmental damages associated with the spill. Previous studies have illustrated that the DWH spill caused extensive damages in the deep-sea ecosystems, affecting soft-bottom benthic infauna and deep-sea corals Fisher et al, 2014;Washburn et al, 2016). Any damages that would result in a decrease of value of other ecosystem services would reduce the value of waste removal calculated in this study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Valuing Nature Waste Removal in the Offshore Environment Following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

2018

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The offshore and deep-sea marine environment provides many ecosystem services (i.e., benefits to humans), for example: climate regulation, exploitable resources, processes that enable life on Earth, and waste removal. Unfortunately, the remote nature of this environment makes it difficult to estimate the values of these services. One service in particular, waste removal, was examined in the context of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Nearly 5 million barrels of oil were released into the offshore Gulf of Mexico, and 14 billion dollars were spent removing about 25% of the oil spilled. Using values for oil spill cleanup efforts, which included capping the wellhead and collecting oil, surface combustion, and surface skimming, it was calculated that waste removal, i.e., natural removal of spilled oil, saved BP over $35 billion. This large amount demonstrates the costs of offshore disasters, the importance of the offshore environment to humans, as well as the large monetary values associated with ecosystem services provided.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Valuing Nature Waste Removal in the Offshore Environment Following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

2018

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“…Thus, benthic effects are attributed to the oil spill and not to natural hydrocarbon seepage. The macrofauna loss was primarily in surface sediments (Washburn et al, 2016). There was a larger proportion of animals in the top 5 cm of sediment vs. deeper (5-10 cm) at stations further from the wellhead, and communities were significantly different among impact areas in the surface sediments but not the deeper sediments.…”

Section: Soft-bottom Community Responsementioning

confidence: 84%

“…There was a larger proportion of animals in the top 5 cm of sediment vs. deeper (5-10 cm) at stations further from the wellhead, and communities were significantly different among impact areas in the surface sediments but not the deeper sediments. Dorvilleidae, a polychaete family often associated with hydrocarbons (Hyland et al, 1994;Washburn et al, 2016), was responsible for the largest amount of dissimilarity between stations close to the wellhead and further away. Several other taxa were classified as sensitive or tolerant to the deepsea blowout by comparing their distributions among impact and nonimpact zones.…”

Section: Soft-bottom Community Responsementioning

confidence: 99%

How Did the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Impact Deep-Sea Ecosystems?

Fisher¹,

Montagna

Sutton

2016

Oceanog

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“…Because of the opportunistic nature of the seep collections and relative lack of nearby reference stations, samples collected from 2000 to 2002 during the Deep Gulf of Mexico Benthos cruises (DGoMB; Rowe & Kennicutt, ) and in 2010 during the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) Response cruises (Montagna et al, ; Washburn, Rhodes, & Montagna, ) were included in analyses as additional deep‐water soft‐bottom background control stations. Background stations were within 100 km and 100 m depth of a station where seep samples were collected (Figure & Table ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although DGoMB samples included sediment 5 cm below DWH samples, it has been shown that little information on benthic community structure is obtained below 10 cm in sediment depth (Montagna, Baguley, Hsiang, & Reuscher, ). All specimens were sorted and identified to lowest taxonomic level by various taxonomic laboratories (Boland & Rowe, ; Washburn et al, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Macrobenthic infaunal communities associated with deep‐sea hydrocarbon seeps in the northern Gulf of Mexico

2018

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There are thousands of seeps in the deep ocean worldwide; however, many questions remain about their contributions to global biodiversity and the surrounding deep‐sea environment. In addition to being globally distributed, seeps provide several benefits to humans such as unique habitats, organisms with novel genes, and carbon regulation. The purpose of this study is to determine whether there are unique seep macrobenthic assemblages, by comparing seep and nonseep environments, different seep habitats, and seeps at different depths and locations. Infaunal community composition, diversity, and abundance were examined between seep and nonseep background environments and among three seep habitats (i.e., microbial mats, tubeworms, and soft‐bottom seeps). Abundances were higher at seep sites compared to background areas. Abundance and diversity also differed among microbial mat, tubeworm, and soft‐bottom seep habitats. Although seeps contained different macrobenthic assemblages than nonseep areas, infaunal communities were also generally unique for each seep. Variability was 75% greater within communities near seeps compared to communities in background areas. Thus, high variability in community structure characterized seep communities rather than specific taxa. The lack of similarity among seep sites supports the idea that there are no specific infauna that can be used as indicators of seepage throughout the northern Gulf of Mexico, at least at higher taxonomic levels.

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Benthic taxa as potential indicators of a deep-sea oil spill

Cited by 41 publications

References 46 publications

Valuing Nature Waste Removal in the Offshore Environment Following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Valuing Nature Waste Removal in the Offshore Environment Following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

How Did the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Impact Deep-Sea Ecosystems?

Macrobenthic infaunal communities associated with deep‐sea hydrocarbon seeps in the northern Gulf of Mexico

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