Deepwater Horizon oil spill impacts on Alabama beaches

Abstract

Abstract. From mid June 2010 to early August 2010, the white sandy beaches along Alabama's Gulf coast were inundated with crude oil discharged from the Deepwater Horizon well. The long-term consequences of this environmental catastrophe are still unfolding. Although BP has attempted to clean up some of these beaches, there still exist many unanswered questions regarding the physical, chemical, and ecological state of the oil contaminated beach system. In this paper, we present our understanding of what is known and known to be unknown with regard to the current state of Alabama's beaches in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Motivated by our observations of the evolving distribution of oil in Alabama's beaches and BP's clean-up activities, we offer our thoughts on the lessons learned from this oil spill disaster.

Shifts in the Microbial Community Composition of Gulf Coast Beaches Following Beach Oiling

“…To accomplish this goal, we characterized surface sand and nearshore water communities at coastal beaches, delineated spatial and temporal patterns at beaches that were oiled between June and November 2010 and at those that did not receive appreciable oiling during that period, and identified taxa changes driving the observed community patterns. Although the Macondo Reservoir blowout provided a defined event that resulted in wide-scale beach oiling [6,13], we were interested only in understanding the response of microbial communities to an oil hydrocarbon pulsed disturbance, not the response related specifically to an oil hydrocarbon source. Thus, any oil hydrocarbons washing ashore during our sampling period were included as part of the analyses.…”

“…This was in stark contrast to the large seasonal changes that had occurred over this period as water temperatures had dropped on average by more than 9 ° C (Table S1). Further, when oil reached beaches along the Gulf Coast, it was quickly buried in the supratidal zones of beaches by tidal porewater flow through the beach face [6,13]. With little new oil being delivered to the Gulf of Mexico after the containment in July 2010, the oiling events along coastal beaches were greatly reduced over the next few months [13].…”

“…Further, when oil reached beaches along the Gulf Coast, it was quickly buried in the supratidal zones of beaches by tidal porewater flow through the beach face [6,13]. With little new oil being delivered to the Gulf of Mexico after the containment in July 2010, the oiling events along coastal beaches were greatly reduced over the next few months [13]. Although changing environmental conditions undoubtedly influenced community composition at each beach, the contrast of the relatively low and consistent magnitude of community change at the non-oiled beaches with the high and inconsistent magnitude of community change at the oiled beaches and the drop in the magnitude of this change as time post beach oiling increased, is consistent with the idea that beach oiling was responsible for the community shifts.…”

“…Beginning in mid-June, large quantities of oil and its constituents sporadically washed ashore over a two- to three-month period and were subsequently buried in the nearshore sandy sediments [6,13], bringing enormous amounts of allochthonous carbon to beach ecosystems. Hundreds of bacterial taxa, many of which have been isolated from contaminated sandy sediments, can decompose a variety oil hydrocarbons [14–16] and rapidly proliferate in the presence of oil [6,14,17,18], but the in situ impacts on microbial communities from increased oil hydrocarbons in the coastal beach environment remain relatively unknown [6].…”

Microbial Community Analysis of a Coastal Salt Marsh Affected by the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

“…Crude oil reached the coast of Alabama by June 2010 and after approximately one month at sea the oil that impacted coastal areas was weathered and presented in the form of oil sheens and tar balls/mats [5], [6].…”