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. 2013 Aug 7;8(8):e70540.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0070540. eCollection 2013.

Deep-sea benthic footprint of the deepwater horizon blowout

Paul A Montagna  1 , Jeffrey G Baguley, Cynthia Cooksey, Ian Hartwell, Larry J Hyde, Jeffrey L Hyland, Richard D Kalke, Laura M Kracker, Michael Reuscher, Adelaide C E Rhodes
Affiliations

Deep-sea benthic footprint of the deepwater horizon blowout

Paul A Montagna et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) accident in the northern Gulf of Mexico occurred on April 20, 2010 at a water depth of 1525 meters, and a deep-sea plume was detected within one month. Oil contacted and persisted in parts of the bottom of the deep-sea in the Gulf of Mexico. As part of the response to the accident, monitoring cruises were deployed in fall 2010 to measure potential impacts on the two main soft-bottom benthic invertebrate groups: macrofauna and meiofauna. Sediment was collected using a multicorer so that samples for chemical, physical and biological analyses could be taken simultaneously and analyzed using multivariate methods. The footprint of the oil spill was identified by creating a new variable with principal components analysis where the first factor was indicative of the oil spill impacts and this new variable mapped in a geographic information system to identify the area of the oil spill footprint. The most severe relative reduction of faunal abundance and diversity extended to 3 km from the wellhead in all directions covering an area about 24 km(2). Moderate impacts were observed up to 17 km towards the southwest and 8.5 km towards the northeast of the wellhead, covering an area 148 km(2). Benthic effects were correlated to total petroleum hydrocarbon, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and barium concentrations, and distance to the wellhead; but not distance to hydrocarbon seeps. Thus, benthic effects are more likely due to the oil spill, and not natural hydrocarbon seepage. Recovery rates in the deep sea are likely to be slow, on the order of decades or longer.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have the following interests. Sample collection during cruises on board R/V Gyre and R/V Ocean Veritas during the Response phase was partly funded by BP as part of the DWH Response effort through funds from BP under the direction of the DWH Unified Area Command (UAC). Christopher Lewis (Industrial Economics, Inc.) reviewed and commented on earlier versions of the manuscript. The study design and scope of work for the present deep-water/soft-bottom benthic study was approved jointly by representatives of the DWH NRDA Trustees and BP. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Principal components analysis of environmental and biological variables.
(A) PC1 and PC2 vector loads for barium (Ba), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), percent mud content of sediment (Mud), aluminum (Al), nematode to copepod ratio (N:C), meiofauna abundance (Mei_Abun), macrofauana abundance (Mac_Abun), macrofauna Hill’s N1 diversity index (Mac_N1), and meiofauna Hill’s N1 diversity index (Mei_N1). (B) PC1 and PC3 vector loads. (C) PC1 station scores, where each station is labeled as distance in km from the wellhead.
Figure 2
Figure 2. PC 1 station scores (Fig. 1) plotted as Jenks natural breaks.
Map includes bathymetry in meters and locations of seeps.
Figure 3
Figure 3. PC 1 station scores (Fig. 1) zoomed into the 40 km from the wellhead, and plotted as Jenks natural breaks.
Map includes bathymetry in meters and locations of seeps.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Interpolated area of deep sea impact based on PC1 station scores.
The interpolated area shown covers 70,166 km2 of which 167 km2 (orange) are considered moderately impacted and 24 km2 (red) are considered severely impacted.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Interpolated area of deep sea impact based on PC1 station scores.
The interpolated area of the zoomed in map covers 6,350 km2 of which 148 km2 (orange) are considered moderately impacted and 24 km2 (red) are considered severely impacted.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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