CONTINUING TRENDS OF BENTHIC COMMUNITY CHARACTERIZATION IN THE NORTHERN GULF OF MEXICO

From April to July of 2010, the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) event released over 4.0 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. While much of the oil has been degraded through natural processes, impacts of the oil spill can still be seen today in benthic (seafloor) macrofauna and microfauna such as foraminifera. Benthic Foraminifera are single-celled protists widely used as bioindicators of system health due to their high diversity and number of species. Prior to DWH in the Northern Gulf of Mexico (NGOM), there was a lack of baseline conditions, resulting in inaccuracies in estimating environmental impact and response. Since 2010, Sediment cores from seven time series sites have been collected annually in the NGOM in order to assess benthic community health and determine the rates of benthic foraminiferal recovery. Data from the sediment cores has been implemented into an ongoing time series to more accurately assess ecological health. Through taxonomic characterization, ecological indices of species richness (Fisher's Alpha, α), heterogeneity (Shannon, H), evenness (E) and density were calculated and recorded as primary indicators of benthic foraminiferal community health from eight subsamples of each core top (<5 cm), continuing the time series through 2023. Our results reveal trends in community characterization that indicate the establishment of new baseline conditions between 2015 and 2016. Measures of benthic health are essential for establishing current baselines, natural variability and providing a template for determining ecological impact and recovery from both future and ongoing ecological impacts. 

For more information: embaran@eckerd.edu

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