NGI Oil Marsh Research 

Saltmarsh habitat sampling to delineate potential oil impacts from BP Deepwater Horizon spill.

Patrick Biber, Wei Wu, Mark Peterson

Rationale: Oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill has been coming ashore along the Mississippi Sound since early June 2010, with a larger incidence of oil arriving around the time tropical systems (e.g. Hurricane Alex) are active in the Gulf. To date no comprehensive maps of the amount of oil that has washed ashore have been made publicly available, so the potential concentration of hydrocarbons present in sediments or bioavailable in plants and animals is unknown. We plan to investigate the hydrocarbon concentration present in these 3 habitat fractions, and create a synoptic map of our results for the Mississippi mainland coastline.

Objective: sample sediments, plant tissues, and fish fauna in five watersheds along the Mississippi coastline.

Expected Results: Once all samples have been analyzed, maps of the concentration of hydrocarbons in each fraction (sediment, plant, fish) will be generated in GIS and made publicly available through the GCRL website (http://www.usm.edu/gcrl/bp.spill/index.php). Additional sampling will be made once additional funds are secured to better fill in geographic gaps and observe potential changes in hydrocarbons in the three fractions over time. This information will be invaluable in determining the ecological impacts and potential food web implications of any oil that ends up trapped in the delicate marsh habitats of Mississippi.

Linked pages for this project:

Methods - NGI - Methods 

Photos - NGI - Photos 

Results - NGI - Results 

Publications - NGI - Presentations & Publications