RAPID: Rapid Assessment of Extent and Photophysiological Effects of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

墨西哥湾的深水地平线事故造成了前所未有的石油泄漏。这次溢油也是前所未有的，因为与大多数由于航运事故发生并导致海洋表面附近的石油释放的溢油不同，这里的石油从大约1500米的深度涌出海洋。虽然目前正在努力了解这场灾难对墨西哥湾生态系统的影响，但最初的注意力主要集中在表面浮油和石油冲上岸的可能性上。然而，越来越多的证据表明，地下有大量石油，尽管没有估计有多少，其在水体中的分布，或对生态系统，包括初级生产者的影响。特别是，目前还不清楚这些生物的生理状况、光合能力和种群结构如何受到石油本身以及CoreClay等分散剂的影响。鉴于石油、分散剂及其分解产物预计将在海湾长期存在，而且目前估计释放的石油量已超过100万桶，这些变化可能对该地区的微生物群落和初级生产力产生重大和持久的影响。智力价值：该奖项资助研究人员为Montoya，Villareal和Bravorite组成的多学科团队做出贡献，他们将于8月中旬至9月中旬在R/V Oceanus和R/V Cape Hatteras上进行巡航，以研究生物环境石油影响的分布和传播水平和垂直尺度使用最先进的荧光和降低声学多普勒海流计技术。除了通过分光荧光技术探测石油本身外，他们还将利用先进激光荧光计研究与石油泄漏的潜在影响有关的光合生物的生物量、光合能力和种群组成。他们将使用APEX浮标探测地下石油羽流，并使用LADCP研究水柱中的垂直和水平速度。这些仪器的数据也可用于验证用于研究墨西哥湾羽流扩散的数值模型。更广泛的影响：深水地平线石油泄漏事件吸引了公众的注意力，每天都在国家和国际报纸的头版报道。调查人员正在积极向媒体解释泄漏的潜在后果。他们将调查有关这一事件的一些最基本的问题，试图估计地下羽流的位置和大小，绘制近地表羽流的空间范围，并通过调查其对浮游植物的生物生理学的影响来了解羽流对墨西哥湾生态系统的影响，食物链的基础。此外，这项工作将补充和通知其他跨学科的调查，包括正在海湾地区进行的高分辨率建模工作。作为该项目的一部分收集的数据将接近实时地或在适当的QA/QC之后尽快提交给适当的公共数据库。一名博士后研究员将作为该项目的一部分接受培训。

The Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico has created an oil spill of unprecedented magnitude. This spill is also unprecedented in that unlike most oil spills that occur due to shipping accidents and result in release of oil near the surface of the ocean, here oil is gushing out of the ocean from a depth of approximately 1500m. While there are several ongoing efforts to understand the impact of this catastrophe on the ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico, much of the initial attention focused on the surface slick and on the potential for oil to wash up onshore. However, there is increasing evidence that there is substantial amount of oil subsurface, although there are no estimates of how much, its distribution in the water column, or the impact on ecosystem, including primary producers. In particular, it is unclear how physiological status, photosynthetic capacity and population structure of these organisms are affected by both oil itself as well as the by dispersants such as Corexit. Given that the oil, the dispersants and their breakdown products are expected to have a long lasting presence in the Gulf and one of current estimates of the amount of oil released already exceeds one million barrels, these changes may have significant and enduring affects on the microbial community and primary productivity of this region. Intellectual Merit:This award funds the investigators to contribute to the multidisciplinary team being formed by Montoya, Villareal, and Bracco in their upcoming cruises on the R/V Oceanus and R/V Cape Hatteras from mid August to mid September to study the distribution and spread of the bio-environmental oil impact on horizontal and vertical scales using state-of-the- art fluorescence and Lowered Acoustic Doppler Current Meter techniques. In addition to detecting oil itself through spectrofluorescence techniques, they will study the biomass, photosynthetic capacity and population composition of photosynthesizing organisms with regard to the potential effects of the oil spill using the Advanced Laser Fluorometer (ALF). They will detect subsurface plumes of oil using APEX floats and study vertical and horizontal velocities in the water column using LADCPs. Data from these instruments can also be used to validate numerical models being used to study the spread of the plume in the Gulf. Broader Impacts: The Deepwater Horizon oil spill has grabbed the public's attention with daily frontpage coverage in national and international newspapers. The investigators are active in outreach explaining the potential consequences of the spill to the media. They will investigate some of the most fundamental questions about this event, to try and estimate the location and magnitude of the subsurface plumes, to map the spatial extent of the near surface plume and to understand the effect of the plume on the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem by investigating its effect on photophysiology of phytoplankton, the base of the food chain. In addition, the work will complement and inform other interdisciplinary investigations including high-resolution modeling work being carried out in the Gulf. The data collected as a part of this project will be submitted to appropriate public databases close to near real-time or as soon as possible after appropriate QA/QC. One Postdoctoral Fellow will be trained as a part of this project.