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

墨西哥湾深水地平线号事故造成了前所未有的石油泄漏。这次漏油也是史无前例的，因为与大多数因航运事故而发生的漏油事件不同，这次漏油是从大约1500米深的海洋中涌出的。虽然正在进行几项努力来了解这场灾难对墨西哥湾生态系统的影响，但最初的大部分注意力集中在表面浮油和石油被冲上海岸的可能性上。然而，越来越多的证据表明，地下有大量的石油，尽管没有估计有多少石油，其在水柱中的分布，或对包括初级生产者在内的生态系统的影响。特别是，这些生物的生理状态、光合作用能力和种群结构如何既受石油本身的影响，又受诸如Corexit等分散剂的影响，目前尚不清楚。鉴于石油、分散剂及其分解产物预计将在墨西哥湾长期存在，而且目前估计的石油释放量之一已超过100万桶，这些变化可能会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。学术价值：该奖项资助研究人员为蒙托亚、比拉雷亚尔和布拉科即将组建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 Ocean和R/V佛得角Hatteras进行巡航，利用最先进的荧光和降声多普勒海流计技术研究生物环境石油影响在水平和垂直尺度上的分布和扩散。除了通过光谱荧光技术检测石油本身外，他们还将使用先进的激光荧光仪(ALF)研究光合作用生物的生物量、光合作用能力和种群组成，以了解漏油的潜在影响。他们将使用APEX浮标探测地下油羽，并使用LADCP研究水柱中的垂直和水平速度。来自这些仪器的数据也可以用来验证用来研究墨西哥湾烟羽扩散的数值模型。更广泛的影响：深水地平线漏油事件引起了公众的注意，国内和国际报纸每天都会在头版进行报道。调查人员正在积极向媒体解释漏油的潜在后果。他们将调查与这一事件有关的一些最基本的问题，试图估计地下羽流的位置和数量，绘制近地表羽流的空间范围图，并通过调查其对食物链基础浮游植物光生理学的影响来了解羽流对墨西哥湾生态系统的影响。此外，这项工作将补充其他跨学科调查，包括在墨西哥湾开展的高分辨率建模工作，并为其提供信息。作为该项目的一部分收集的数据将近乎实时地或在适当的质量保证/质量控制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.