Potential impacts of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill on subtidal oysters in the Gulf of Mexico

Grabowski, Jonathan H.; Powers, Sean P.; Roman, Henry; Rouhani, Shahrokh

doi:10.3354/meps12208

Cited by 23 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Also, the freshwater diversions from the Mississippi River, which were conducted as part of the emergency response, reduced average salinities to less than 5 ppt across vast portions of northern Barataria Bay and Black Bay/Breton Sound in Louisiana for more than 30 consecutive days, killing at least 1.1 billion adult-equivalent subtidal oysters [13]. Oyster populations in the areas affected by the diversions are not expected to recover before 2017, due to the combination of direct oyster mortality and the resulting depressed recruitment, and habitats where sedimentation or oil clean-up activities made substrates unsuitable for spat settlement may not recover at all without restoration action [10,12]. …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geohistorical records indicate no impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on oyster body size

Dietl

Durham

2016

R. Soc. open sci.

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Documentation of the near- and long-term effects of the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, one of the largest environmental disasters in US history, is still ongoing. We used a novel before-after-control-impact analysis to test the hypothesis that average body size of intertidal populations of the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) inhabiting impacted areas in Louisiana decreased due to increased stress/mortality related to the oil spill. Time-averaged death assemblages of oysters were used to establish a pre-spill baseline of body-size structure for four impacted and four control locations along a 350 km stretch of Louisiana's coastline. Post-spill body sizes were then measured from live oysters at each site in order to evaluate the differences in body size between oiled (i.e. impact) and unoiled (i.e. control) locations before and after the spill. Our results indicate that average body size of oysters remained relatively unchanged after the oil spill. There were also no temporal patterns in temperature, salinity or disease prevalence that could have explained our results. Together, these findings suggest that oysters either recovered rapidly following the immediate impact of the DWH oil spill, or that its impact was not severe enough to influence short-term population dynamics of the oyster beds.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geohistorical records indicate no impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on oyster body size

Dietl

Durham

2016

R. Soc. open sci.

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“…Relative positions of different years are determined by Bray-Curtis similarities between all possible pairings of years, with 2D stress reflecting the extent of distortion (low distortion, in this case) created by representing these Bray-Curtis similarities in a two-dimensional Euclidean space. cover declined >99% at oiled sites as opposed to unoiled ones (Grabowski et al, 2017;Powers et al, 2017c), an effect that persisted for several years after the DWH event.…”

Section: Species-level Summariesmentioning

confidence: 92%

A Synthesis of Deepwater Horizon Impacts on Coastal and Nearshore Living Marine Resources

et al. 2021

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The 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico began on April 20, originating in the deep sea 66 km off the Louisiana coast. By early June, DWH oil had spread to coastal Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and western Florida. An estimated 2,113 km of shoreline were oiled, making DWH the largest marine oil spill in global history by length of affected shoreline. Additionally, a series of oil spill response measures were deployed, including diversions of Mississippi River discharge to forestall oil coming ashore, and the establishment of large-scale fishery closures, with both affecting coastal resources to varying degrees. Here, we review published studies and describe additional analyses evaluating long-term impacts of DWH on coastal/nearshore biological resources. We assembled time-series data collected by state, federal and academic partners on population abundance and environmental conditions to evaluate species and community change. Our study focused on plankton, invertebrates, fishes and dolphins, and 13 “key species” were selected to conduct semi-quantitative vulnerability-resilience (V-R) analyses. At one extreme, early life stages of Gulf Menhaden (Brevoortia patronus) were not affected due to seasonal spawning and larval development preceding the spill. In contrast, demographically independent populations of the common Bottlenose Dolphin, (Tursiops truncatus) suffered a variety of severe and ongoing health effects owing to oil exposure. Virtually all of the heavily oiled salt marsh habitat was in Louisiana, with the majority occurring in Barataria Bay. Multispecies trawl survey abundances declined post-DWH throughout eastern coastal Louisiana but remained stable elsewhere. A regime shift in composition of Barataria Bay trawl survey catches occurred during and following the spill, the persistence of which was associated with long-term reductions in average salinity and increases in water clarity. In some cases, fishery closures were associated with measurable but ephemeral increases in abundance of some targeted and bycatch species. Freshwater flooding of marshes was ineffective in preventing coastal oiling and severely affected benthic euryhaline resources including Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea virginica) and Marsh Periwinkle (Littoraria irrorata). The flooding response measure experiment also indicates the directionality of impacts that further planned water diversions may have on ecological communities of lower Mississippi River basins.

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“…Studies in the aftermath of the DWH oil spill demonstrated that disturbances resulting from oiling and various response activities can have substantial impacts on oyster resources. The summer release of large quantities of freshwater from the Mississippi River through the Caernarvon and Davis Pond diversion structures as the State of Louisiana moved to protect marsh ecosystems from the inflow of oil in 2010 resulted in the loss of 2-3 billion market-sized oysters from subtidal areas of Barataria Bay and Black Bay/Breton Sound estuaries (Grabowski et al, 2017;Powers et al, 2017b). Mesocosm experiments funded by GoMRI indicated that exposing oysters to short periods of low salinity could help them combat oil contaminant effects; however, this must be balanced by heavy expected mortality resulting from extended periods at very low salinity (Schrandt et al, 2018).…”

Section: Oyster Restoration and Recoverymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Researchers concluded impacts on oysters were primarily due to activities associated with response to the DWH oil spill. The summer release of large quantities of freshwater from the Mississippi River through the Caernarvon and Davis Pond diversion structures as the State of Louisiana moved to protect marsh ecosystems from the inflow of oil in 2010 resulted in the loss of 2-3 billion market-sized oysters from subtidal areas of Barataria Bay and Black Bay/Breton Sound estuaries (Grabowski et al, 2017;Powers et al, 2017b). (photo) Louisiana coastal oysters exposed at low tide.…”

Section: Oyster Restoration and Recoverymentioning

confidence: 99%

Prospects for Gulf of Mexico Environmental Recovery and Restoration

Wiesenburg¹,

Shipp²,

Fodrie³

et al. 2021

Oceanog

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Previous oil spills provide clear evidence that ecosystem restoration efforts are challenging, and recovery can take decades. Similar to the Ixtoc-I well blowout in 1979, the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill was enormous both in volume of oil spilled and duration, resulting in environmental impacts from the deep ocean to the Gulf of Mexico coastline. Data collected during the National Resource Damage Assessment showed significant damage to coastal areas (especially marshes), marine organisms, and deep-sea habitat. Previous spills have shown that disparate regions recover at different rates, with especially long-term effects in salt marshes and deep-sea habitat. Environmental recovery and restoration in the northern Gulf of Mexico are dependent upon fundamental knowledge of ecosystem processes in the region. Post-DWH research data provide a starting point for better understanding baselines and ecosystem processes. It is imperative to use the best science available to fully understand DWH environmental impacts and determine the appropriate means to ameliorate those impacts through restoration. Filling data gaps will be necessary to make better restoration decisions, and establishing new baselines will require long-term studies. Future research, especially via NOAA’s RESTORE Science Program and its state-based Centers of Excellence, should provide a path to understanding the potential for restoration and recovery of this vital marine ecosystem.

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Potential impacts of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill on subtidal oysters in the Gulf of Mexico

Cited by 23 publications

References 35 publications

Geohistorical records indicate no impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on oyster body size

Geohistorical records indicate no impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on oyster body size

A Synthesis of Deepwater Horizon Impacts on Coastal and Nearshore Living Marine Resources

Prospects for Gulf of Mexico Environmental Recovery and Restoration

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