RAPID Collaborative Proposal: Spatially-explicit, High-resolution Mapping and Modeling to Quantify Hypoxia and Oil Effects on the Living Resources of the Northern Gulf of Mexico

2010年4月22日，“深水地平线”钻井平台沉入墨西哥湾北部近1200米深的水中。从这一天起，各种估计的石油和添加的化学分散剂已经从现场释放出来，在表面和深处都有分散。这些石油和分散剂的运输受到大陆架上的风力流和环流及其近海衍生物的影响。到目前为止，“地平线”漏油的确切数量和移动路径仍是猜测。自2003年以来，在美国国家海洋和大气管理局（NOAA）的资助下，这组调查人员在墨西哥湾北部进行了5次夏季巡航，使用高分辨率采样来确定物理环境与浮游动物和鱼类在空间上的明确关系。因此，这个研究小组拥有最全面的天气数据集，包括墨西哥湾北部漏油前的温度、盐度、氧气、浮游植物、浮游动物和鱼类。目前的RAPID项目将允许该小组在墨西哥湾北部重复他们对水文、氧气、浮游生物和鱼类的高分辨率测绘。这项研究将覆盖密西西比河三角洲西部缺氧区和密西西比河东部地区的先前调查区域，那里预计将有更多的石油从泄漏中运输出来。这次巡航将在夏末进行，因为调查人员在这个季节有5年的基线数据来比较结果。物种多样性和丰度、生物量大小谱、鱼类饮食、鱼类生长速率潜力的测量方法及其使用生态系统模型所产生的结果将对评估石油泄漏对墨西哥湾北部生物资源可能产生的影响极为有用。该小组还将派遣科学家乘坐ORV Oceanus进行高分辨率的垂直浮游动物测量和在更深的站点进行moness浮游动物拖曳，并进行更广泛的测绘调查，以扩大我们对受影响地区的空间覆盖范围。他们将与其他调查人员协调我们的浮游动物和鱼类测量，评估BP石油泄漏的生物地球化学和生物影响。美国国家海洋和大气管理局以前的研究数据将存放在美国国家科学基金会生物和化学海洋学数据管理设施中。更广泛的影响。考虑到墨西哥湾商业渔业的经济重要性（约占美国总登陆量的20%，代表约9.91亿美元）和休闲渔业（产生约30%的全国咸水渔业支出，支持近25%的全国休闲咸水工作），有必要对BP石油泄漏对远洋生态系统的影响进行评估。角点实验室和俄勒冈州立大学是国家科学基金会海洋科学卓越教育中心（NSF-COSEE）和本科生体验（REU）项目的一部分。在可能的情况下，在NSF快速响应拨款中，我们将让REU的本科生和教师参与我们拟议的研究计划。

On April 22, 2010, the drill platform Deepwater Horizon sank in nearly 1,200 m of water in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Since this date various estimates of oil and added chemical dispersants have been released from the site with dispersion both at the surface and at depth. The transport of this oil and dispersants has been influenced by wind-driven currents over the shelf and by the Loop Current and its derivatives offshore. To date the exact amount and paths of movement of the Horizon spill remain speculative. Since 2003, with funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, this group of investigators has conducted 5 summer cruises in the northern Gulf of Mexico using high-resolution sampling to define the spatially explicit relationships the physical environment and pelagic zooplankton and fish. Thus, this research group has one of the most comprehensive, synoptic data sets on temperature, salinity, oxygen, phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish in the northern Gulf of Mexico for conditions prior to the oil leak.The current RAPID award will allow this group to repeat their high-resolution mapping of hydrography, oxygen, plankton and fish in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The study will cover the previous survey region in the hypoxic zone west of the Mississippi Delta and the area east of the Mississippi where more oil transport from the spill is expected. The cruise will take place in the late summer period because the investigators have 5 years of baseline data during this season to compare the results. The measures of species diversity and abundance, biomass size spectrum, fish diets, fish growth rate potential and the results produced from their use of ecosystem models will be extremely useful to assess the possible effects of the oil spill on the living resources of the northern Gulf of Mexico. This group also will send scientists on the ORV Oceanus to conduct high resolution vertical zooplankton measurements and MOCNESS zooplankton tows at deeper stations and broader mapping surveys to extend our spatial coverage of the affected area. They will coordinate our zooplankton and fish measurements with other investigators assessing the biogeochemical and biological impacts of the BP oil spill. Data from previous NOAA studies will be deposited in the NSF Biological NSF Biological and Chemical Oceanographic Data Management facility. Broader Impacts. Given the economic importance of the Gulf of Mexico commercial fisheries (about 20% of the U.S. total landings representing about $991 million) and recreational fishing (generating ~30% of the nation's saltwater fishing expenditures and supporting nearly 25% of the nation's recreational saltwater jobs), it is imperative that knowledge of the effects of the BP oil spill on the pelagic ecosystem be assessed. The Horn Point Laboratory and Oregon State University are part of the National Science Foundation Center for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (NSF-COSEE) and Experience for Undergraduates (REU) programs. Where possible in this NSF RAPID response grant, we will involve REU undergraduate students and teachers in our proposed research program.