Oiling accelerates loss of salt marshes, southeastern Louisiana

Beland, Michael; Biggs, Trent W.; Roberts, Dar A.; Peterson, S.; Kokaly, Raymond F.; Piazza, Sarai C.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0181197

Cited by 25 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 75 publications

(175 reference statements)

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“…The spill resulted in widespread death of vegetation, which led to accelerated erosion due to loss of root grip support on marsh sediment (cf. Beland et al, 2017;Silliman et al, 2012;Turner et al, 2016). However, the Deepwater Horizon/BP Oil Spill of 2010 does not appear to have left a clear signal in core BJ-4.…”

Section: Potential Storm Impactsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Vegetation on the islands on Bay Jimmy is primarily of the marshy types (mostly grasses), and the island is almost devoid of trees. Deepwater Horizon/BP Oil Spill of 2010 in the GOM increased erosion of the marsh to the extent that a large portion of the islet has since been taken up by water (Beland et al, 2017;Silliman et al, 2012;Turner et al, 2016).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

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A 1200-year history of environmental changes in Bay Jimmy area, coastal Louisiana, USA

Kiage

2019

The Holocene

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Paleoecological studies from the northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) have mostly aimed at understanding long-term paleoenvironmental changes. Only a few studies have been performed in the southern United States focusing on paleoenvironmental changes during the common era. This study investigated paleoenvironmental changes in coastal Louisiana over the past 1200 years by utilizing proxy data, including loss-on-ignition (LOI) and pollen from a sediment core collected from a wetland in Bay Jimmy. The results indicate that the marsh in the study area was formed at ca. AD 1090 and has been primarily shaped by prevailing climatic conditions, including rare extreme events. At least four major hurricanes impacted the site over the 1200 years, including two that made landfall in recent times. The findings show that coastal Louisiana was warm and dry during the ‘Medieval Warm Period’ (ca. AD 950–1250). The environment after AD 1090 contained scattered Pinus and Juglans vegetation communities that were later succeeded by a closed forest that included Quercus and Morus. Red mangrove ( Rhizophora) was established in the vicinity of Bay Jimmy until shortly after cal AD 1450 and 1640. The pollen record indicates that the ‘Little Ice Age’ period (AD 1550–1850) was cold and dry, characterized by a more open vegetation community. There is evidence of forest disturbance that is marked by a rise in Ambrosia pollen in the 1700s, coinciding with the time of European settlement in North America. The presence of Ambrosia and Cheno/Am pollen throughout the record suggests that anthropogenic influence has been part of the fabric of the southern Louisiana landscapes throughout the 1200 years.

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Section: Potential Storm Impactsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

A 1200-year history of environmental changes in Bay Jimmy area, coastal Louisiana, USA

Kiage

2019

The Holocene

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“…Heavily oiled marshes suffered combined effects of toxicity and smothering. In general, plant survival, growth, and recovery depended on oiling severity, duration, and species affected, with impacts decreasing with distance from oiled shorelines (Silliman et al, 2012;Zengel et al, 2015;Chen et al, 2016;Hester et al, 2016;Lin et al, 2016;Beland et al, 2017). Differential species tolerance to Macondo oil was particularly evident.…”

Section: Variable Timescales Of Impactsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…For example, black needlerush (Juncus roemerianus) was more sensitive and less resilient to oiling than smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora; Lin and Mendelssohn, 2012;Lin et al, 2016). Along some shorelines, recovery was likely impaired or prevented by shoreline erosion, which oiling can accelerate (Zengel et al, 2015;Hester et al, 2016;Beland et al, 2017). On a positive note, vegetation that was lightly or moderately oiled by the DWH spill showed little impact or recovered rapidly (Lin and Mendelssohn, 2012;Hester et al, 2016;Lin et al, 2016).…”

Section: Variable Timescales Of Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Petroleum By-Products and Dispersants on Ecosystems

Halanych¹,

Ainsworth²,

Cordes³

et al. 2021

Oceanog

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Gulf of Mexico (GOM) ecosystems are interconnected by numerous physical and biological processes. After the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) disaster, these ecological processes facilitated dispersal of oil-spill toxicants or were damaged and broken. A considerable portion of post-DWH research focused on higher levels of biological organization (i.e., populations, communities, and ecosystems) spanning at least four environments (onshore, coastal, open ocean, and deep benthos). Damage wrought by the oil spill and mitigation efforts varied considerably across ecosystems. Whereas all systems show prolonged impacts because of cascading effects that impacted functional connections within and between communities, deep-sea and mesopelagic environments were particularly hard hit and have shown less resilience than shallow environments. In some environments, such as marshes or the deep-sea benthos, products from the spill are still biologically accessible. Some shallow ecosystems show signs of recovery, and populations of some species show resilience; however, a return to a “pre-spill” state is questionable. Importantly, habitats in which large amounts of energy flow through the ecosystem (marshes, coastal regions) recovered more quickly than low energy habitats (deep-sea benthos). Functional interactions between Gulf of Mexico systems are more complex and widespread than generally recognized. Moreover, ecosystems in the Gulf are subject to multiple stressors that can combine to impart greater, and less predictable, impacts. To help mitigate the effects of future insults, we identified four salient areas of research that should be addressed for each of the major environments within the GOM: establishing monitoring systems; quantifying coupling between GOM ecosystems; developing criteria for assessing the “vulnerability” and “resilience” of species, communities, and ecosystems; and developing holistic predictive modeling.

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“…Observations, laboratory experiments, and data analyses have all contributed to a better understanding of estuarine and coastal hydrodynamics and associated transport of freshwater, sediments, nutrients, and pollutants (Zheng and Weisberg, 2010;Beland et al, 2017;Valentine and Mariotti, 2019). The unstructured grid models that are now available are better equipped to simulate the complex coastal geometries of marshes, wetlands, and estuaries, and their multiscale time variabilities (Justić and Wang, 2014;White et al, 2019c).…”

Section: Coastal To Offshore Linkage Circulation and Transportmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physical Transport Processes that Affect the Distribution of Oil in the Gulf of Mexico: Observations and Modeling

Boufadel¹,

Bracco

Chassignet³

et al. 2021

Oceanog

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Physical transport processes such as the circulation and mixing of waters largely determine the spatial distribution of materials in the ocean. They also establish the physical environment within which biogeochemical and other processes transform materials, including naturally occurring nutrients and human-made contaminants that may sustain or harm the region’s living resources. Thus, understanding and modeling the transport and distribution of materials provides a crucial substrate for determining the effects of biological, geological, and chemical processes. The wide range of scales in which these physical processes operate includes microscale droplets and bubbles; small-scale turbulence in buoyant plumes and the near-surface “mixed” layer; submesoscale fronts, convergent and divergent flows, and small eddies; larger mesoscale quasi-geostrophic eddies; and the overall large-scale circulation of the Gulf of Mexico and its interaction with the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea; along with air-sea interaction on longer timescales. The circulation and mixing processes that operate near the Gulf of Mexico coasts, where most human activities occur, are strongly affected by wind- and river-induced currents and are further modified by the area’s complex topography. Gulf of Mexico physical processes are also characterized by strong linkages between coastal/shelf and deeper offshore waters that determine connectivity to the basin’s interior. This physical connectivity influences the transport of materials among different coastal areas within the Gulf of Mexico and can extend to adjacent basins. Major advances enabled by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative in the observation, understanding, and modeling of all of these aspects of the Gulf’s physical environment are summarized in this article, and key priorities for future work are also identified.

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Oiling accelerates loss of salt marshes, southeastern Louisiana

Cited by 25 publications

References 75 publications

A 1200-year history of environmental changes in Bay Jimmy area, coastal Louisiana, USA

A 1200-year history of environmental changes in Bay Jimmy area, coastal Louisiana, USA

Effects of Petroleum By-Products and Dispersants on Ecosystems

Physical Transport Processes that Affect the Distribution of Oil in the Gulf of Mexico: Observations and Modeling

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