Oil Spill Disaster in Southwest Atlantic Coast: an Evaluation of Short-Term Effects on Coral Reef Benthic Assemblages

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

“…Oil-related species-level impacts from this orphan spill have been detected in several taxonomic groups (Table 1; Figs. 1 and 2) such as seagrasses (Magalhães et al, 2021), sponges (Lira et al, 2021;Miranda et al, 2022), corals (Campelo et al, 2021;Miranda et al, 2022), polychaetes (Craveiro et al, 2021;Lira et al, 2021), echinoderms (Cerqueira, 2021), turtles, birds (IBAMA, 2019;Oliveira et al, 2021), fishes (Magalhães et al, 2022;Melo et al, 2022;Soares et al, 2021;Souza et al, 2022), and marine mammals (IBAMA, 2019). In addition, the most studied groups were crustaceans (47.4%) and mollusks (31.6%) (Soares et al, 2022;Campelo et al, 2021;Craveiro et al, 2021;Gusmao et al, 2021;Soares et al, 2021;Magalhães et al, 2022;Rosa, 2022;Santana et al, 2022) (Fig.…”

“…Orphan fuel oil spill effects/References Algae Oil stains observed in direct contact with crustose coralline algae and macroalgae species (Miranda et al, 2022)…”

“…Oil stains on surface and channels of marine sponge Cinachyrella sp. (Lira et al, 2021) Oil stains observed in direct contact with sponges (Miranda et al, 2022) Cnidarian Threat to the recruitment and health of endemic reef-building corals (Mussismilia harttii) (reproductive event close to oil spill) (Campelo et al, 2021) Oil stains observed in direct contact with colonies of the reef-building coral Siderastrea stellata (Miranda et al, 2022) Oil on tentacles of the Portuguese man o' war (Physalia physalis) (Soares et al, 2020b) Laboratory analysis indicated interference of symbiont-host relationship of tropical corals. Carcinogenic/mutagenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) identified as responsible for reduced population growth of the coral endosymbiont Symbiodinium glynnii (Müller et deformity of the spine and yolk sac edema (Souza et al, 2022), which indicates oil-related impacts in early life stages.…”