Sunlight creates oxygenated species in water-soluble fractions of Deepwater horizon oil

Impact of Photooxidation and Biodegradation on the Fate of Oil Spilled During the Deepwater Horizon Incident: Advanced Stages of Weathering

“…This observation is in agreement with previous reports. 24 The relative differences in the DOM formed in both the dark and irradiated samples are also evident at the end of the biodegradation experiment (Fig. 4).…”

“…53 Most notably, the quantitative increase in aromatic DOM constituents formed as a result of natural weathering processes seems to be a generalizing feature of oil decomposition. 24 An assessment of the aerobic biodegradability of sand patty-derived DOM was examined by comparing the rate of oxygen consumption in sediment samples amended with dark or irradiated DOM, whole sand patty material or only endogenous organic matter. The rate of oxygen consumption and thus the amount of biodegradable organic matter was lowest in samples amended with endogenous organic matter (after 24 h), intermediate with dark DOM or whole sand patty material and highest with irradiated samples (Fig.…”

“…24 The fact that the DOM content was significantly reduced by the end of the incubation for the dark and irradiated samples by 67% and 56%, respectively strongly suggests that the water-soluble organic material leached from sand patties was available to the resident microflora and amenable to biodegradation.…”

“…10,12,14-19 Not surprisingly, the environmental fate of the oil was influenced by many well documented weathering processes. [20][21][22][23][24][25] These processes resulted in the massive transformation of the oil components and a chemical footprint that differed substantively from the crude oil released at the wellhead. Most notably, the transformation of the crude Macondo 252 oil resulted in the formation of a group of partially oxidized organic compounds collectively termed 'oxyhydrocarbons.'…”

Going Beyond the Analysis of Common Contaminants: Target, Suspect, and Non-Target Analysis of Complex Environmental Matrices by High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry

“…The high-resolution achieved by ion cyclotron resonance (ICR) or Orbitrap mass spectrometers provides the power of separation needed for such a complex matrix, and allows for the assignment of unequivocal molecular formulae (e.g., C c H h N n O o S s ), which can then be sorted into "classes" based on heteroatom content (e.g., N n O o S s ) (Bae et al, 2010;Koolen et al, 2015;Ray et al, 2014). The most commonly used ionization sources for crude oil studies by HRMS include electrospray ionization (ESI) (Bae et al, 2010;Ray et al, 2014;, atmospheric pressure photoionization (APPI) (Bae et al, 2010;Koolen et al, 2015;Purcell et al, 2006;, and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) (Hsu et al, 2000;Panda et al, 2009;Rudzinski and Rai, 2005). Other sources used include atmospheric pressure laser ionization (APLI) (Gaspar et al, 2012;Panda et al, 2011) as well as laser desorption ionization (LDI) (Cho et al, 2012;Cho et al, 2013).…”