Download or read book Temporal Progression of Oil Spill Impact on a Cold water Coral Community written by Pen-Yuan Hsing and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Oil Spills in Coral Reefs written by Rebecca Z. Hoff and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book INSIGHTS FROM LONG TERM MONITORING OF DEEP SEA CORAL COMMUNITIES IMPACTED BY THE DEEPWATER HORIZON OIL SPILL written by Fanny Girard and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deep-water corals form one of the most complex biological habitats in the deep sea, and house a high diversity of associated fauna. Yet, they are very vulnerable to anthropogenic impact due to their lack of mobility, exposed tissue, and generally low growth rates. In April 2010, the blowout of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform in the northern Gulf of Mexico led to the largest oil spill in US history. The first impacted coral community was discovered three months after the well was capped. Corals there, were covered in a brown flocculent material (floc) that contained traces of oil, directly linking the observed damages to the spill. Eleven months later, two additional affected communities were discovered and, although corals were no longer covered in floc, the characteristic patchy impact distribution on the colonies, previously observed at the first site discovered, indicated that these corals had also been impacted by the spill. I quantified the impact and assessed the recovery of deep-sea corals using high-definition photographs of individual colonies. Paramuricea spp. colonies, well suited for visual monitoring due to their planar morphology, were imaged every year between 2011 and 2017 at five sites (three impacted and two reference sites). Images were then digitized to quantify impact and track recovery patterns. Overall recovery was slow. Although the health of lightly impacted corals improved, heavily impacted colonies showed little or no sign of recovery by 2017. The initial level of visible impact on corals had a significant effect on the improvements in the condition of individual branches between consecutive years. Furthermore, branch loss at two of the impacted sites was still significantly higher between 2016 and 2017 than at the reference sites. Even after seven years, the fate of the corals that were impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is still uncertain and the effects of the oil spill appear to be ongoing.The high-resolution images collected between 2011 and 2014 were also used to investigate the relationship between Paramuricea biscaya and its ophiuroid associate Asteroschema clavigerum, based on the hypothesis that both species benefit from this association. Coral colonies associated with ophiuroids were on average less impacted than coral colonies that had no associates. After defining the area clearly under the influence of ophiuroids for each coral, I found that the level of visible impact to coral branches was lower in the area influenced by ophiuroids than outside that area, and that impacted branches within this area were more likely to recover than branches outside the area of influence. These results suggest a mutualistic symbiosis between P. biscaya and A. clavigerum; Ophiuroids use corals to gain access to food particles brought by currents, and corals likely benefit through the physical action of ophiuroids removing particles deposited on polyps and perhaps inhibiting the settlement of hydroids. The beneficial role of ophiuroids was demonstrated on corals impacted by an oil spill, but these benefits could also extend to corals in environments exposed to natural sedimentation events, perhaps allowing corals to live in environments where heavy sedimentation would otherwise limit their survival.In order to assess recovery over the long term and to plan for future monitoring, I developed an impact-dependent, state-structured matrix model. The model, parameterized using data collected as part of the long-term monitoring project, projected the dynamics of three-branch states: visibly healthy, unhealthy and hydroid-colonized. Although branch loss was implicitly included in the model, I focused on the return of extant damaged branches to a healthy state rather than on the slower re-growth of lost branches. The model estimated that, whereas most corals will recover to a visibly healthy state within a decade, the most impacted coral colonies will take up to three decades to visibly recover. Impact-related branch loss will lead to a 10% reduction in total biomass at the impacted sites by the time all coral colonies are projected to appear healthy. Given the very slow growth rates estimated for these corals, hundreds of years may be necessary for coral communities to re-grow to their original biomass. Overall, even with the help of associated ophiuroids, the recovery of corals impacted by the oil spill is extremely slow, demonstrating the necessity to prevent impact to deep-sea corals rather than relying on restoration after the fact. Deep-sea corals are reliable indicators of anthropogenic impact in the deep sea because they are sessile, their skeleton is almost entirely covered with living tissue, making potential damage easily detectable, and natural mortality is an extremely rare event. The methods I employed allow the detection of small changes in the health of coral colonies that would not be visible with monitoring based on transects. Therefore, I suggest the establishment of photo-based coral-monitoring sites as part of protected areas to detect and limit future anthropogenic impact to vulnerable deep-sea ecosystems.
Download or read book Oil in the Sea III written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2003-03-14 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the early 1970s, experts have recognized that petroleum pollutants were being discharged in marine waters worldwide, from oil spills, vessel operations, and land-based sources. Public attention to oil spills has forced improvements. Still, a considerable amount of oil is discharged yearly into sensitive coastal environments. Oil in the Sea provides the best available estimate of oil pollutant discharge into marine waters, including an evaluation of the methods for assessing petroleum load and a discussion about the concerns these loads represent. Featuring close-up looks at the Exxon Valdez spill and other notable events, the book identifies important research questions and makes recommendations for better analysis ofâ€"and more effective measures againstâ€"pollutant discharge. The book discusses: Inputâ€"where the discharges come from, including the role of two-stroke engines used on recreational craft. Behavior or fateâ€"how oil is affected by processes such as evaporation as it moves through the marine environment. Effectsâ€"what we know about the effects of petroleum hydrocarbons on marine organisms and ecosystems. Providing a needed update on a problem of international importance, this book will be of interest to energy policy makers, industry officials and managers, engineers and researchers, and advocates for the marine environment.
Download or read book Cold Water Corals and Ecosystems written by André Freiwald and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-01-17 with total page 1242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cold-water coral ecosystems figure the formation of large seabed structures such as reefs and giant carbonate mounds; they represent unexplored paleo-environmental archives of earth history. Like their tropical cousins, cold-water coral ecosystems harbour rich species diversity. For this volume, key institutions in cold-water coral research have contributed 62 state-of-the-art articles on topics from geology and oceanography to biology and conservation, with some impressive underwater images.
Download or read book Lasting Impact and Recovery From the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill of a Deepwater Coral Community in the Gulf of Mexico written by Bo Fu and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Deepwater Horizon rig blowout released an estimated 4.1 million barrels of oil, as much as half of which remained in the water column or was deposited onto the seafloor, posing a high risk to deepwater ecosystems. A coral community in BOEM lease block MC294, located 11km from the Macondo well at a depth of 1370m, was discovered in 2010 with many corals showing signs of impact from the blowout. A paper published by Hsing and colleagues (2013) found the median total visible impact of the corals at this site decreased between November 2010 and March 2012, correlating the degree of initial impact with lasting damage. Here, we present a follow-up study, expecting similar decreases in median total visible impact and the continued presence of hydroid colonization. Through a series of eight research expeditions between November 2010 and June 2014, 49 Paramuricea biscaya corals were imaged and digitized. Individual branches were categorized into four different categories depending on visible condition. Images were then compared between visits for transitions from one category to another, producing detailed temporal data of condition. The overall median visible impact of the corals decreased significantly between late 2010 and October 2011, but showed no significant changes after. We found significant rates of branch loss between March 2011 and June 2013, up to a peak of 0.72 break points per coral per month between November 2012 and June 2013. On 24 out of 39 corals, portions of hydroid-colonized branches recovered to a non-visibly impacted state, though the degree of recovery was small compared to the amount of hydroids that remained on the coral. Continual changes in hydroid composition and branch loss indicate the corals are still in a state of flux, and despite permanent damage from by branch loss, overall the data suggests that the level of impact has leveled off.
Download or read book Cold water Coral Reefs written by André Freiwald and published by United Nations Environment Programme. This book was released on 2004 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dated June 2004
Download or read book Seamounts written by Tony J. Pitcher and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seamounts are ubiquitous undersea mountains rising from the ocean seafloor that do not reach the surface. There are likely many hundreds of thousands of seamounts, they are usually formed from volcanoes in the deep sea and are defined by oceanographers as independent features that rise to at least 0.5 km above the seafloor, although smaller features may have the same origin. This book follows a logical progression from geological and physical processes, ecology, biology and biogeography, to exploitation, management and conservation concerns. In 21 Chapters written by 57 of the world’s leading seamount experts, the book reviews all aspects of their geology, ecology, biology, exploitation, conservation and management. In Section I of this book, several detection and estimation techniques for tallying seamounts are reviewed, along with a history of seamount research. This book represents a unique and fresh synthesis of knowledge of seamounts and their biota and is an essential reference work on the topic. It is an essential purchase for all fisheries scientists and managers, fish biologists, marine biologists and ecologists, environmental scientists, conservation biologists and oceanographers. It will also be of interest to members of fish and wildlife agencies and government departments covering conservation and management. Supplementary material is available at: www.seamountsbook.info
Download or read book Oil Pollution in the North Sea written by Angela Carpenter and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-11-27 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume offers a review of measures taken at different levels to prevent oil inputs to the North Sea from sources such as shipping and oil installations. A range of data from satellites, remote sensing, aerial surveillance, in-situ monitoring, oil spill sampling and beached bird surveys presents a comprehensive portrait of trends in oil pollution over many years. Topics include Bonn Agreement-based actions to eliminate illegal and accidental pollution from ships, OSPAR monitoring of oil installations, EMSA CleanSeaNet activities, and an internationally approved common standard for oil spills presented by the Bonn-OSINet. A chapter on the role of the IMO in preventing oil pollution from ships provides an international context, while others discuss efforts being made at the national level. A decadal review of the state of the North Sea prepared by OSPAR supports the view that there has been a significant reduction of oil inputs to the sea. This thorough review addresses national and international agencies and government bodies, as well as policymakers and practitioners in the fields of shipping, ports and terminals, oil extraction and marine management. Further, it provides researchers with essential reference material on tools and techniques for monitoring oil pollution and offers a valuable resource for undergraduate and post-graduate students in the field of marine oil pollution.
Download or read book Cold Water Coral Reefs of the World written by Erik Cordes and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2024-01-28 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cold-water corals form reef structures in continental margin and seamount settings world-wide, making them more wide-spread and abundant than shallow-water reefs. Their role in these ecosystems is no less important than the influence that shallow-water coral reefs have on tropical systems. They create habitat structure, host endemic species, enhance elemental cycling, alter current flow, sequester carbon, and provide many other ecosystem services that we are just beginning to understand. The rapidly evolving state of knowledge of cold-water and deep-sea coral reefs has not been compiled in over 10 years. This volume synthesizes recent and historical information, reveals new findings from reefs that have been discovered only recently, and presents key avenues for future research. We are on the cusp of understanding the critical role that cold-water coral reefs play in the world’s oceans, and this book lays the foundation on which this knowledge will be built in the future.
Download or read book The Use of Dispersants in Marine Oil Spill Response written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2020-04-24 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether the result of an oil well blowout, vessel collision or grounding, leaking pipeline, or other incident at sea, each marine oil spill will present unique circumstances and challenges. The oil type and properties, location, time of year, duration of spill, water depth, environmental conditions, affected biomes, potential human community impact, and available resources may vary significantly. Also, each spill may be governed by policy guidelines, such as those set forth in the National Response Plan, Regional Response Plans, or Area Contingency Plans. To respond effectively to the specific conditions presented during an oil spill, spill responders have used a variety of response optionsâ€"including mechanical recovery of oil using skimmers and booms, in situ burning of oil, monitored natural attenuation of oil, and dispersion of oil by chemical dispersants. Because each response method has advantages and disadvantages, it is important to understand specific scenarios where a net benefit may be achieved by using a particular tool or combination of tools. This report builds on two previous National Research Council reports on dispersant use to provide a current understanding of the state of science and to inform future marine oil spill response operations. The response to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill included an unprecedented use of dispersants via both surface application and subsea injection. The magnitude of the spill stimulated interest and funding for research on oil spill response, and dispersant use in particular. This study assesses the effects and efficacy of dispersants as an oil spill response tool and evaluates trade-offs associated with dispersant use.
Download or read book Oil Spill Dispersants written by Committee on Understanding Oil Spill Dispersants: Efficacy and Effects and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Approximately 3 million gallons of oil or refined petroleum products are spilled into U.S. waters every year. Oil dispersants (chemical agents such as surfactants, solvents, and other compounds) are used to reduce the effect of oil spills by changing the chemical and physical properties of the oil. By enhancing the amount of oil that physically mixes into the water, dispersants can reduce the potential that a surface slick will contaminate shoreline habitats. Although called for in the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 as a tool for minimizing the impact of oil spills, the use of chemical dispersants has long been controversial. This book reviews the adequacy of existing information and ongoing research regarding the effectiveness of dispersants as an oil spill response technique, as well as the effect of dispersed oil on marine and coastal ecosystems. Oil Spill Dispersants also includes recommended steps for policy makers faced with making hard choices regarding the use of dispersants as part of spill contingency planning efforts or during actual spills.
Download or read book Understanding Oil Spills and Oil Spill Response written by and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book World Ocean Assessment written by Alan Simcock and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-04-17 with total page 978 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This United Nations report examines the current state of knowledge of the world's oceans, for policymakers, and provides a reference for marine science courses.
Download or read book An Ecosystem Services Approach to Assessing the Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2013-12-20 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the Gulf of Mexico recovers from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, natural resource managers face the challenge of understanding the impacts of the spill and setting priorities for restoration work. The full value of losses resulting from the spill cannot be captured, however, without consideration of changes in ecosystem services-the benefits delivered to society through natural processes. An Ecosystem Services Approach to Assessing the Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico discusses the benefits and challenges associated with using an ecosystem services approach to damage assessment, describing potential impacts of response technologies, exploring the role of resilience, and offering suggestions for areas of future research. This report illustrates how this approach might be applied to coastal wetlands, fisheries, marine mammals, and the deep sea-each of which provide key ecosystem services in the Gulf-and identifies substantial differences among these case studies. The report also discusses the suite of technologies used in the spill response, including burning, skimming, and chemical dispersants, and their possible long-term impacts on ecosystem services.
Download or read book The Status of Natural Resources on the High seas written by Southampton Oceanography Centre and published by IUCN. This book was released on 2001 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Ecosystems of the Deep Oceans written by P.A. Tyler and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2003-03-27 with total page 581 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines the deep sea ecosystem from a variety of perspectives. The initial chapters examine the deep-sea floor, the deep pelagic environment and the more specialised chemosynthetic environments of hydrothermal vents and cold seeps. These environments are examined from the perspective of the relationship of deep-sea animals to their physico-chemical environment.Later chapters examine the biogeography of the main deep oceans (Atlantic, Pacific and Indian) with particular attention to the downward flux of surface-derived organic matter and how this drives the processes within the deep-sea ecosystem. The peripheral deep seas including the polar seas and the marginal deep seas (inter alia the Mediterranean, Red, Caribbean and Okhotsk seas) are explored in the same context. The final chapters examine the processes occurring in the deep sea and include an analysis of why the deep sea has high species diversity, how the fauna respond to organic input and how species have adapted reproductive activity in the deep sea. The volume concludes with an analysis of the anthropogenic impact on the deep sea.
