Geohistorical Baselines of Osyter Reef Health: A Paleoecological Response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

对墨西哥湾深水地平线石油泄漏的近期和长期生态影响的评估才刚刚开始。这个项目使用了一个相对简单的方法？软体动物生存和平均死亡组合的等级丰度比较？建立牡蛎礁健康生态基线。这种方法的优点是，在长期监测工作导致常规活体采集样本稀少或无法获得的地区，可以提供牡蛎礁群落的普查。这些基线信息将使我们能够超越对石油泄漏造成的直接生态变化的认识，通过提供对受影响前牡蛎礁组成的独特视角。这类信息在？snapshot?中是无法获得的。基准线，例如许多政府和非政府机构为应对石油泄漏而收集的基准线。这些信息为设置恢复目标提供了非常需要的上下文。它还强调了地理历史数据在保护工作中必须发挥的关键作用。这项研究的结果为评估深水地平线石油泄漏对海湾地区牡蛎礁生态和结构的影响提供了关键的基线数据。这项研究也为未来的政策修订奠定了基础，并确保我们在漏油事故后的保护工作与基于生态系统的管理方法更充分地保持一致，该方法整合并实施了增加的知识，以改善管理和政策决策。虽然许多现有的养护和管理过程包括基线评估的各个方面，但大多数应急工作只集中于有限范围的补救管理工作。这幅图景中缺失的是一个更积极主动、更全面地认识人类对海洋生态系统影响的过程。为了使未来的生态系统修复工作有效，需要一种更全面的方法，结合并明确评估我们海洋生态系统的历史多样性和丰富性。这个项目为这种方法提供了一个有价值的例子。该项目的成果将广泛传播给学术界和公众。特别是，两个外联项目将使当地和全国的广大受众能够获得结果。这些项目建立在古生物研究所（PRI）最近的外联倡议的基础上，这是对公众要求了解深水地平线石油泄漏对生态影响的回应。这些倡议的第一个是在革命制度党的一个小型临时展览？地球博物馆。该展览是基于现代海洋无脊椎动物的标本，特别是珊瑚和软体动物，从PRI？广泛的研究收藏。第二个是一个网站（www.museumoftheearth.org/undersiege），它解释了海湾和礁岛群岛海洋无脊椎动物的多样性，以及为什么这些物种特别容易受到原油的伤害。这两辆车将用来展示这个牡蛎礁项目的结果。

The near- and long-term ecological effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are only just beginning to be assessed. This project uses a relatively simple method? comparison of the rank-order abundance of molluscan living and time-averaged death assemblages ?to establish an ecological baseline of oyster reef health. This approach has the advantage of providing a census of oyster reef communities in areas where conventional live-collected samples resulting from long-term monitoring efforts are sparse or unavailable. Such baseline information will allow us to move beyond the recognition of the immediate ecological changes resulting from the oil spill, by providing a unique perspective on the composition of pre-impact oyster reefs. This kind of information is not available from ?snapshot? baselines, such as those collected by many governmental and non-governmental agencies in response to the oil spill. This information provides much needed context for setting restoration goals. It also highlights the key role that geohistorical data have to play in conservation efforts.The results of this study provide critical baseline data needed to assess the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the ecology and structure of oyster reefs in the Gulf region. This study also serves as a foundation for future policy amendments and ensures our post oil spill conservation efforts more fully align with an ecosystem-based management approach that integrates and implements increased knowledge to improve management and policy decisions. While many existing conservation and management processes include aspects of a baseline assessment, most contingency efforts focus solely on a limited range of remedial management efforts. Missing from this picture is a more proactive process for more comprehensive recognition of human effects on marine ecosystems. For future ecosystem remediation efforts to be effective, a more holistic approach that incorporates and explicitly evaluates the historical diversity and abundance of our marine ecosystems will be required. This project provides a valuable example of such an approach.Results from this project will be widely disseminated both to the academic community and general public. In particular, two outreach projects will make the results accessible to broad audiences both locally and nationally. These projects build on recent outreach initiatives of the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI), which were a response to public requests for information on the ecological effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The first of these initiatives is a small temporary exhibit in PRI?s Museum of the Earth. The exhibit is based on specimens of modern marine invertebrates, especially corals and mollusks, from PRI?s extensive research collections. The second is a website (www.museumoftheearth.org/undersiege) explaining the diversity of marine invertebrates in the Gulf and Keys and why these species may be especially vulnerable to crude oil. These two vehicles will be used to present the results of this oyster reef project.