RAPID: Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Effects on Metal, Nutrient, and Organic Matter Distributions in the Water

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This study is aimed at understanding the effect of the ongoing Deepwater Horizon oil spill on chemical distributions in the affected area. Because of the ongoing nature of the oil spill as well as the uncertainty of it course (i.e., it could stop at any time or continue indefinitely), sampling this event now is critical. Metals, nutrients, and organic matter all play important roles in the geochemical processes affecting the biota. The oil spill region is an important fishery and thus understanding how the spill is affecting chemical distributions is a vital aspect of understanding its impact on the food chain. With funding through this Grant for Rapid Response Research (RAPID), investigators at the University of Southern Mississippi will examine how and to what extent metal and nutrient distributions are affected by the oil spill. This includes both direct effects (e.g., Ni is enriched in crude oil) as well as indirect effects wherein the spill could affect some other factor or process that they affects metals and nutrients (e.g., via oxygen depletion). They will conduct surveys in the affected area using both boats available to the university as well as ships of opportunity. They will also analyze samples collected in the past week in the oil spill area. The principal investigator's laboratory already has pre-spill baseline data for much of the affected area. Thus, thus they have a context for understanding and interpreting the data that will be gathered.Broader Impacts Little is known about the impact of oil spills on trace element distributions. Thus, a broader impact of this work lies in helping understand some of the impacts of a serious oil spill which is contaminating an important fishery. The investigators will also involve a student in this work. Because of the wide interest in the impact of the oil spill, the results will not only be disseminated in the reviewed literature, but the findings are also likely to picked up by the popular media.