A research published in the Elsevier Journal focused on the impact of the oil spill on the salt marsh habitats along the southeastern Louisiana coast. Satellite and ground data were used to assess two of the most important marsh biophysical characteristics, distribution of canopy chlorophyll content and above ground green biomass. Both were monitored during the salt marsh growing season (May–October) of 2009 (pre-spill) and 2010 (post-spill). This research provided scientists the ability to compare and isolate the spill impacted areas (Mishra et.al 2012). Field data collection (ground data) was one of the methods used to assess the damages of the spill. Sixty nine salt marsh plots across an oil gradient ranging from heavy, moderate, light and no oil were sampled in southeastern Louisiana during the post spill growing season and used for model calibration. A separate dataset of twenty six plots from a different geographic location were sampled at a different time of the year to provide model validation. During data collection, numerous areas of oil blanketing, marsh browning, oil infiltration of root systems and damage due to clean up efforts were observed. (Mishra et.al 2012) The initial assessment of all data collected showed that there was a significant post-spill increase in areas with reduced biomass and canopy chlorophyll (> 400 km2) during the 2010 growing season when compared to just 50–65 km2 during the 2009 growing season. Phenological analysis of the post oil-spill data revealed a significant decrease in the magnitude of biomass and canopy chlorophyll during the peak of the 2010 growing season. June was consistently found to be the worst month in terms of salt marsh health across Louisiana over the 2010 phenological ... ... middle of paper ... ...rsity, The Salt Marsh by B.E. Fleury, 2000. http://www.tulane.edu/~bfleury/envirobio/saltmarsh.html Khanna S, M. J. Santos, S. L. Ustin, A. Koltunov, R. F. Kokaly, D. A. Roberts. 2013. Detection of salt marsh vegetation stress and recovery after the deepwater horizon oil spill in Barataria Bay, Gulf of Mexico using AVIRIS data. PLOS ONE 8(11): e78989. McCall, B.; S. C. Pennings. 2012. Disturbance and recovery of salt marsh arthropod communities following BP deepwater horizon oil spill. PLOS ONE; 7 (3): e32735 Maricle, B. R., and R. W. Lee. 2002. Aerenchyma development and oxygen transport in the estuarine cord grasses Spartina alterniflora and S. anglica. Aquatic Botany 74:109–120 Pezeshki, S.R., M.W. Hester, Q. Lin, J.A. Nyman, 2000, The effects of oil spill and clean-upon dominant US Gulf coast marsh macrophytes: a review, Environmental Pollution. 108: 129-139
I live in Houma, Louisiana so I have tons of experience with the bayou region of South Louisiana. Everywhere I look in Houma there is a bayou, which is a good and bad thing. With a bayou comes many great things such as Egrets, Spanish Moss, etc. The bad thing about seeing many bayous is that it is a constant reminder that one day, Houma might be a part of the Gulf of Mexico. Also my dad’s side of the family is from Chauvin and Golden Meadow which is not too far from where the real damage of eroding wetlands is. I go down to Chauvin sometimes to visit my Nanny and her husband. I always see houses on stilts because of possible flooding that could come if a hurricane passes through. One of the issues that Mike Tidwell caught my interest was that the wildlife in bayous will one day be diminished into smaller numbers. That is because the eroding land causes brown shrimp, crabs, and other seafood to die out. Many residents in South Louisiana make a living off of seafood so to have most of that industry die out will hurt the economy of South Louisiana. I just found this issue very interesting.
Wiens, J. A. (1996) Oil, seabirds, and science: the effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. BioScience 46 (8) 587-598.
Smith Jr., Lawrence C., L. Murphy Smith, and Paul A. Ashcroft. "Analysis Of Environmental And Economic Damages From British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill." Albany Law Review 74.1 (2011): 563-585.Academic Search Complete. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.
2. According to the satellite images, the spill directly impacted 68,000 square miles (180,000 km2) of ocean, which is comparable to the size of Oklahoma. Also, 16,000 total miles of coastline have been affected, including the coasts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. By early June 2010, oil had washed up on 125 ...
Abiotic factors are things that are nonliving that influence an environment and it's inhabitants. Some of the abiotic factors that are attributed to coastal erosion in Louisiana are hurricanes, tropical storms, elevation, sunlight, overnutrition, sea-level rise, and deposition. Hurricanes bring about larger waves which cause dune erosion or beach erosion (Clark et al., 1998). This is significant because beaches and/or the dunes of the beach serve as buffers to the coastline and the ecosystem. As the beach or dunes recede from the erosion caused by these large waves and an increased sea-level the flora and fauna that help sustain the area die off or retreat to a more habitable zone leaving the wetlands in a critical state often resulting in a total loss of the area (Stockdon et al., 2012). Due to the nature of the Gulf of Mexico large destructive storms such as hurricanes or tropica...
Aquatic species are having these chemicals and debris forced upon them against their will. As stated in the article “Combined Sewer Overflows” the treatment plants cannot handle the income of water and the trash in it, so they push the water and the trash out into the ocean (“Combined Sewer Overflows”). Because humans are not able to handle the event aquatic species are being tangled up in or choking on all the garbage and trash from humans. Oil spills are another case were animals are the victims of human actions. "As little as one part of oil per million parts of water can be detrimental to the reproduction and growth of fish, crustaceans, and plankton” (“Threats to Aquatic Environments”). Even the slightest amount of oil will affect the life of any aquatic species. Oil spills also block sunlight, because oil is lighter that water the oil just sits on top of the water (“Threats to Aquatic Environments”). When the oil sits like this it blocks the sun from aquatic plants and kills them. Another problem caused is when aquatic plants are dying they are sinking down to the floor of the water, suffocating the other organisms that cannot move quickly or at all. Oil spills have been devastating to many species for years. Since the oil spill of 1989 a species was so devastated that today the species is still trying to recover from the spill (“Threats to Aquatic Environments”). Oil spills are a major reason that species
Globally coastal wetlands are disappearing at an alarming rate, the problem is most of society does not realize the value of these precious wetlands. Coastal wetlands provide an important role in the coastal ecosystem. “Coastal wetlands provide critical services such as absorbing energy from coastal storms, preserving shorelines, protecting human populations and infrastructure, supporting commercial seafood harvests, absorbing pollutants and serving as critical habitat for migratory bird populations”(Anonymous, 2011). Coastal wetlands are an economical asset as well as an environmental one.
Most people believe that one man-made natural disaster would teach us to be better, but we have learned that history repeats itself. The Exxon Valdez oil spill (in 1989) and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, or BP oil spill, (in 2010) were both devastating oil spills that shocked the nation. The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred due to a tanker grounding. The BP oil spill was caused by an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform. These two oil spills were both disasters and had greater effects in certain categories. In this essay, I will be comparing the cause of both oil spills, the damage/effect of both oil spills, and the cleanup of each oil spill.
Nelson, A.N. 1971. Effects of oil on marine plants and animals. London: Institute of Petroleum.
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill has had an extremely negative effect on the surrounding wildlife and ecosystem. The oil spread across the gulf contaminating any living organism that came into direct or indirect contact with it. The oil cuts off the ability of oxygen from the air to move into the water which directly harms fish and other marine wildlife that require that oxygen. The dispersant that the BP is using to try and break up the oil moves the slick into the entire water column which contaminates the ocean floor which would most likely not have seen any damage if it wasn’t for the use of these dispersants. More than 400 species that live in the Gulf Islands and marshlands are at risk and as of November 2 s...
One of the most famous pollution threats of the bay was the Oil Spill of 2007. A tanker hit the wall of the bay, and a total of 58,000 gallons of oil was spilt into the water of the San Francisco Bay Area. The spread of the oil was so severe that the governed of the States came to see the progress that he inducted during the cleanup. Initial investigation of the extent to which the spill had affected the ecosystem of the San Francisco Bay area took twelve hours. There are the different conclusion that was arrived at after the
Analysis of sites in five coastal states indicate that many marshes and mangrove ecosystems receive adequate mineral sediments to produce enough organic sediment and root material to remain above sea level at the present rate of sea-level rise (1-2 mm per year globally). However, three of the twelve wetlands studied were not keeping pace with the current rate of sea-level rise. If sea-level rise accelerates, some additional sites would also begin to slowly deteriorate and submerge.
“ Effects of Oil Spills on Marine and Coastal Wildlife” Holly K. Ober. WEB. 19 May 2014
In a research article by Lotze, Coll, Magera, Ward and Airoldi (2011) they examine the positive side of how ecosystems in the ocean can recover even though they are faced with many different types of struggles every day. The authors ask the main question: How common is recovery among depleted populations and degraded ecosystems in the ocean? It is hypothesized that over the years, ecosystems are going to recover and essentially in the future, increase. The results in this study supported the hypothesis of the research on recovery for certain ecosystems and stated that 10-50% of ecosystems actually show some rate of progression (Lotze, 2011). This has significance when looking at pollution and the effect...
...Dennison, W. C., Duarte, C. M., Fourqurean, J. W., Heck, K. L., & Williams, S. L. (2006). A global crisis for seagrass ecosystems.Bioscience, 56(12), 987-996.