Cellular accumulation of crude oil compounds reduces the competitive fitness of the coral symbiont Symbiodinium glynnii

The most extensive oil spill registered in tropical oceans (Brazil): the balance sheet of a disaster

“…Monitors and co-management measures must be implemented to minimize the public health, ecological, and socioeconomic effects of this extensive spill. To elucidate the magnitude of the disaster and to contribute to the adequate restoration, we emphasize the urgent need for research focusing on the following issues: (1) levels and effects of contamination in tropical food webs; (2) environmental toxicity (PAHs -polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) from oil and its residues in populations and ecosystems not evaluated to date (e.g., fishes, oysters, rhodolith beds, and coral reefs) (Miranda et al 2020;Müller et al 2021;Soares et al 2021); (3) biomonitors, biomarkers (Almeida et al 2021), and microbial remediation of the oil spill (Appolinario et al 2019;Rodrigues et al 2020); and (4) monitoring of the acute and chronic ecological and socioeconomic impacts on traditional human communities and coastal ecosystems. Finally, there is a global concern regarding the impacts of mapping, exploitation, transportation, and uses of fossil fuels in the threatened world by climate change and the biodiversity crisis.…”

“…Moreover, the coral endosymbiont Symbiodinium glynnii bioaccumulates oil compounds with concomitant changes in cellular δ13C isotopic values and negative impacts on physiology and growth rate. The induced fitness reduction is inherited by generations, indicating changes of the genetic material, presumably caused by mutagenic PAHs from this extensive oil spill (Müller et al 2021).…”

Severe ecological impacts caused by one of the worst orphan oil spills worldwide

“…This result of the most studied ecosystem may be explained by several factors. First, tropical reefs are among the richest marine ecosystems, and even a small amount of oil can impact this important habitat (Nordborg et al, 2020;Rajendran et al, 2022); for example, an interference in symbiont-host relationships of corals was detected owing to the presences of oil along the Brazilian coast (Müller et al, 2021). Second, oil stains that reach a reef may remain in the hard-bottom habitat for a long time, as seen in the Brazilian mystery oil spill, because the removal was only mechanical (Soares et al, 2022), thus generating a long-term source of oil contamination (e.g., PAHs) in Brazilian tropical reefs (Domínguez-Hernández et al, 2022).…”

“…(Soares et al, 2022;Sissini et al, 2020). The likely impacts of this orphan spill in conjunction with marine heatwaves and tourism have been detected (Müller et al, 2021;Santana et al, 2022). In the first case, mass coral bleaching and unprecedented mortality was observed in the first half of 2020 (one half year after the oil spill).…”

Oil Spill in Brazil—Analysis of Vulnerabilities and Socio-Environmental Conflicts

“…Benthic and mangrove regions are environments that are more susceptible to impacts, through the sedimentation of this material in coastal micro and macrofauna, amplifying along the chain the toxicity, genetic alterations, and other damages of the contamination [36,37]. Although toxicological tests conducted in the Baixo Jaguaribe region in the state of Ceará indicated non-significant damage to the genetic material of shellfish due to the influence of oil pollutants [38], a recent study pointed out the relationship between exposure from the 2019 oil spill and decreased growth rate of a type of microalgae of the zooxanthella species Symbiodinium glynnii, mutualistically influencing the maintenance of corals, which may undergo bleaching processes [39].…”