Application of chemical dispersants or mechanical dispersion on surface oil is a trade-off between surface effects (impact of floating oil) and sub-surface effects (impact of suspended oil). Making an informed decision regarding such response, requires insight in the induced change…
Satellite images of reflected sunlight have been used to detect and monitor oil spills in oceans. However, such a capacity is often hindered by the image noise due to either a low signal-to-noise ratio or other image features such as…
Beaked whales are deep diving elusive animals, difficult to census with conventional visual surveys. Methods are presented for the density estimation of beaked whales, using passive acoustic monitoring data collected at sites in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) from the…
Fossils of marine microorganisms such as planktic foraminifera are among the cornerstones of palaeoclimatological studies. It is often assumed that the proxies derived from their shells represent ocean conditions above the location where they were deposited. Planktic foraminifera, however, are…
This study quantifies the effect of oil layer thickness on entrainment and dispersion of oil into seawater, using a plunging jet with a camera system. In contrast to what is generally assumed, we revealed that for the low viscosity “surrogate…
The Gulf of Mexico supports a high biological diversity and biomass of fish, seabirds, and mammals; in this region, multiple commercial and recreational fishing fleets operate providing economic resources for local populations. The Gulf is also the site of important…
A two-dimensional (2-D) ecosystem model, set within the De Soto Canyon ecotone of the Northern Gulf of Mexico (NGOM) and driven by 3-D flow fields from decoupled water and air circulation models, explores the daily food web and sedimentary consequences,…
Red Snapper Lutjanus campechanus were sampled at 33 natural and 27 artificial reef sites in the northern Gulf of Mexico prior to (2009–2010) and after (2010–2011) to examine potential diet and trophic shifts following the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill.…
Ammonium is a nutrient frequently preferred by microorganisms that photosynthesize at the base of the marine food web and remove atmospheric carbon dioxide via carbon fixation. Because their photosynthesis is concentrated in the ocean's thin euphotic zone, its nutrient concentrations…
A recent publication from Wageningen University in the Netherlands performed a meta-analysis of large oil spills to determine if a MOSSFA brought oil to the sea floor in other oil spills. During Deepwater Horizon, 9.1% of oil from the well…
