The Physical, Chemical, and Biological Effects of Crude Oil Spills after 15 Years on a Black Spruce Forest, Interior Alaska

Collins, Charles M.; Racine, Charles H.; Walsh, Marianne E.

doi:10.14430/arctic1286

Cited by 16 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Similar effects on black spruce due to crude oil have been observed elsewhere (8) . There was no apparent effect on the shallow-rooted vegetation.…”

Section: Vegetation Impactsupporting

confidence: 82%

Fate of Hydrocarbon Contaminants In Natural Wetlands

Moore¹,

Hardisty²,

Thompson³

et al. 1999

Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology

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Conventional clean-up approaches to contaminated wetlands are aggressive and expensive, and may harm the wetland ecosystem. Current findings suggest that wetlands may be capable of attenuating contamination through natural processes including sorption, biodegradation, and volatilization. The objective of the study was to conduct a field evaluation of the role of these attenuation mechanisms at four contaminated natural wetlands in Alberta. A second focus of the study was to evaluate contaminant impact on the wetlands vegetation. The results indicate that contaminant attenuation in wetlands are influenced by several parameters, including depth of impact, contaminant composition, presence of peat, flow rates, and seasonal effects. Overall, natural processes appear to be completely attenuating hydrocarbon contamination at two of the four wetlands study sites. At the other two sites, minor concentrations were reaching downgradient receptors. Impact on vegetation was observed at three of the four sites, primarily through mortality of black spruce. The impact on shallow vegetation was generally negligible. Introduction Wetland contamination by hydrocarbons as a result of upstream oil and gas activity is well known, both in Alberta and worldwide. Conventional clean-up approaches (e.g., excavation, trenching, and burning) are aggressive and expensive, and may harm the wetland ecosystem. A more passive, longer term solution may be to focus on containing or removing the source and allow natural processes to remediate the remaining contamination. This approach, known as intrinsic remediation or natural attenuation, has been shown to be effective in various scenarios, from fuel-contaminated groundwater at Air Force Bases to oil spill-impacted shorelines. There has been little investigative work on the subject of intrinsic remediation in hydrocarbon-impacted wetlands. Current findings suggest that wetlands may be capable of retarding and potentially depleting contaminant plumes through natural remediation processes including: sorption, biodegradation, and volatilization. Wetlands are typically water-saturated environments with a high percentage of peat. Peat is an organic-rich material containing partially to highly decomposed plant fibres, roots, and mosses(1). Wetlands containing peat have several unique attributes, which enhance contaminant attenuation in the following ways:Sorption: Sorption may be described as the partitioning of contaminants from the liquid phase to the soil matrix. The peat matrix is highly porous (up to 70%) and has been found to be capable of absorbing up to eight times its weight in oil(2). Peat contains approximately 40% organic carbon by weight. Laboratory testing completed by Tinh et al.(3) indicates that peat's adsorptive capacity is between 30 to 50% of granular activated carbon. Peat is therefore an excellent filter for organic contaminants.Biodegradation: Microorganisms indigenous to the environment are capable of biodegrading most organic contaminants found in petroleum fuels, both aerobically and under anerobic conditions. Due to their high organic content and biodiversity, wetlands exhibit microbial activity exceeding most natural environments(4). The enhanced microbial activity results in greater potential for biodegradation, whereby microbes stimulate the breakdown of organics such as hydrocarbons to form CO2, water, and biomass.Volatilization: Volatilization describes the partitioning of hydrocarbons from the soil phase, dissolved phase, and/or liquid phase into the vapour phase.

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“…Similar effects on black spruce due to crude oil have been observed elsewhere (8) . There was no apparent effect on the shallow-rooted vegetation.…”

Section: Vegetation Impactsupporting

confidence: 82%

Fate of Hydrocarbon Contaminants In Natural Wetlands

Moore¹,

Hardisty²,

Thompson³

et al. 1999

Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology

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show abstract

“…The samples were analyzed with a GC/FID to evaluate n-C 17 /pr ratios. Furthermore, a literature review was conducted to establish n-C 17 /pr ratios in middle distillates and crude oils (Palacas et al, 1982;Collins et al, 1994;Buruss and Ryder, 1998;Porter and Simmons, 1998;Wang et al, 2003;Chung et al, 2004;Environment Canada, 2004;Hurst and Schmidt, 2005;Blanco et al, 2006;Hwang et al, 2006;Røberg et al, 2007). Christensen and Larsen (1993) claim that n-C 17 /pr ratios for fresh heating oil range from around 2.0 to 2.4 (based on Figure 4 of their article).…”

Section: Christensen and Larsen Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age Dating Heating-Oil Releases, Part 1. Heating-Oil Composition and Subsurface Weathering

Oudijk¹

2009

Environmental Forensics

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“…The reduction in vertical foliar projective coverage of plant community as soil TPH concentration increases was observed in the field from three months (Mendelssohn et al, 1990) to many years (Burk, 1977;Collins et al, 1994) after initial contamination. Controlled experiments and field investigations reveal that the productivity of plant communities is reduced for several months after an oil pollution event , as was evident in our study of the long-term effects (Fig.…”

Section: Composition and Productivity Of The Reed Communitymentioning

confidence: 94%

“…However, few studies have investigated the potential long-term effects of elevated PH levels on plant community in the field (Culbertson et al, 2008;Hester and Mendelssohn, 2000). PH have been found to lower plant community productivity (Kinako, 1981;Mishra et al, 2012;Zhu et al, 2013), simplify their structure (Burk, 1977;Collins et al, 1994;Mendelssohn et al, 1990;Mishra et al, 2012) and reduce their biological diversity (Osuji et al, 2004). This change in community composition depends on the difference in species' sensitivities to PH (Lin and Mendelssohn, 1996;Pezeshki et al, 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%