Collaborative Research: RAPID: The Effects of Oil Contamination from the Deep Horizon Disaster on the Composition of Dissolved Organic Matter in Louisiana Coastal Marshes

化学系的环境化学科学（ECS）计划将支持德克萨斯A M大学的托马斯比安奇教授、路易斯安那州立大学的罗伯特·库克教授和格鲁吉亚理工学院的迈克尔·珀杜教授的合作RAPID研究项目。该合作小组将调查墨西哥湾深地平线灾难的石油污染对路易斯安那州沿海沼泽溶解有机物（DOM）组成的影响。这项研究的目的是证明，从路易斯安那州沿海沼泽地收集的DOM的组成签名的变化将表明在路易斯安那州沼泽地的地球化学过程的深地平线石油泄漏的影响。调查小组将利用路易斯安那州海洋大学联盟（LUMCON）的船只，位于洛杉矶特雷博讷，从特雷博讷湾沿着的沼泽地收集水样。样品将被过滤以从水样中收集DOM。本研究将采用先进的分析方法分析DOM的含量，对阐明“深地平线”漏油事件对沿着生态系统的影响至关重要。更好地了解这种影响对于制定战略将沼泽地恢复到深地平线石油泄漏灾难之前的状况至关重要。

The Environmental Chemical Sciences (ECS) program of the Division of Chemistry will support the collaborative RAPID research project of Prof. Thomas Bianchi of Texas A & M University, Prof. Robert Cook of Louisiana State University and Prof. Michael Perdue of Georgia Institute of Technology. The collaborative team will investigate the impact of oil contamination from the Deep Horizon Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico on the composition of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the Louisiana coastal marshes. The study aims to prove that changes in the component signature of DOM collected from the Louisiana coastal marshes will be indicative of the impact of the Deep Horizon oil spill on geochemical processes in the Louisiana marshes. The team of investigators will utilize boats from the Louisiana Marine Universities Consortium (LUMCON), located in Terrebonne, LA to collect water samples from marshes along Terrebonne Bay. The samples will be filtered to collect the DOM from the water samples. Advanced analytical methods will be used to analyze the DOM content.The study is crucial to elucidate the impact of the Deep Horizon oil spill on the ecosystems along the Louisiana coast. Better understanding of this impact is imperative to development of strategies to restore the marshes to their condition prior to the Deep Horizon oil spill disaster.