scholarly journals Evidence of lasting impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on a deep Gulf of Mexico coral community

Elem Sci Anth ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pen-Yuan Hsing ◽  
Bo Fu ◽  
Elizabeth A. Larcom ◽  
Samantha P. Berlet ◽  
Timothy M. Shank ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
Coral Community ◽  
Initial Contact ◽  
The Third ◽  
Median Level ◽  
Gorgonian Corals ◽  
Flocculent Material ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

Abstract A coral community 11 km southwest of the site of the Deepwater Horizon blowout at 1,370 m water depth was discovered 3.5 months after the well was capped on 3 November 2010. Gorgonian corals at the site were partially covered by a brown flocculent material (floc) that contained hydrocarbons fingerprinted to the oil spill. Here we quantify the visible changes to the corals at this site during five visits over 17 months by digitizing images of individual branches of each colony and categorizing their condition. Most of the floc visible in November 2010 was absent from the corals by the third visit in March 2011, and there was a decrease in the median proportions of the colonies showing obvious signs of impact after the first visit. During our second visit in 2010, about six weeks after the first, we documented the onset of hydroid colonization (a sign of coral deterioration) on impacted coral branches that increased over the remainder of the study. Hydroid colonization of impacted portions of coral colonies by the last visit in March 2012 correlated positively with the proportion of the colony covered by floc during the first two visits in late 2010. Similarly, apparent recovery of impacted portions of the coral by March 2012 correlated negatively with the proportion of the coral covered with floc in late 2010. A notable feature of the impact was its patchy nature, both within and among colonies, suggesting that the impacting agent was not homogeneously dispersed during initial contact with the corals. While the median level of obvious visible impact decreased over time, the onset of hydroid colonization and the probability of impacts that were not visually obvious suggest that future visits may reveal additional deterioration in the condition of these normally long-lived corals.

scholarly journals Impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on a deep-water coral community in the Gulf of Mexico

2012 ◽  
Vol 109 (50) ◽  
pp. 20303-20308 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. K. White ◽  
P.-Y. Hsing ◽  
W. Cho ◽  
T. M. Shank ◽  
E. E. Cordes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Deep Water ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
Coral Community ◽  
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill ◽  
Water Coral

Fingerprinting of Weathered Oil Residues from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: The Importance of Multiple Lines of Investigation

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (1) ◽  
pp. 3051-3070 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen J. Murray ◽  
John S. Brown ◽  
Linda L. Cook ◽  
Paul D. Boehm
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Complex Mixture ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
Anthropogenic Sources ◽  
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill ◽  
Transport Pathways ◽  
Chemical Profiles ◽  
Sediment Data ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT 2017-189 The crude oil released from the Macondo Well, also known for its location in Mississippi Canyon area as the MC252 well during the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, entered an environment already containing a complex mixture of hydrocarbons from both natural and anthropogenic sources, many of which have closely related chemical profiles. To understand the impact of the released oil in offshore areas, a method was needed to distinguish MC252-related hydrocarbons from other sources. A multiple lines of evidence approach was developed to identify weathered MC252 oil in offshore sediments in the Gulf of Mexico. Chemical data for alkanes, PAH, petroleum biomarkers and metals were combined with spatial, temporal, and observational information to examine the fingerprints for more than 4,000 sediment samples collected over the span of five years. The unique conditions of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), with many natural petroleum seeps and tepid seas, provided an ideal environment to support microbial degradation of petroleum. As a result of these conditions, the initial fingerprint of the MC252 was rapidly and extensively altered in the environment including depletion of petroleum biomarkers, usually assumed to be recalcitrant and often used in ratios to identify petroleum residues. Revised biomarker match criteria were defined to account for biodegradation within this fraction. Applying this methodology to the offshore sediment data from the GOM provided a comprehensive understanding of the distribution of the MC252 oil in offshore sediment and an understanding of the various transport pathways which conveyed the oil to the sediments.

Evaluating the impact of man-made disasters on imperiled species: Piping plovers and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

2017 ◽  
Vol 212 ◽  
pp. 48-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Gibson ◽  
Daniel H. Catlin ◽  
Kelsi L. Hunt ◽  
James D. Fraser ◽  
Sarah M. Karpanty ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill ◽  
Piping Plovers ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Imperiled Species

scholarly journals HEALTH TRAJECTORIES OVER TIME IN THE ATHLOS PROJECT: FINDINGS FROM MULTIPLE COHORTS

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S798-S798
Author(s):  
Matthew Prina
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Cohort Studies ◽  
Healthy Ageing ◽  
The Third ◽  
Health Trajectories ◽  
Working Together ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

Abstract The ATHLOS (Ageing Trajectories of Health: Longitudinal Opportunities and Synergies) project is a consortium of 15 partners across Europe who are working together to understand patterns of healthy ageing trajectories, and to seek the factors that determine those patterns, in a harmonised dataset of 17 international cohort studies of ageing. During this symposium we will be presenting some of the work that has recently been carried out within this project. The symposium will consist of four talks: the first talk will introduce the project, and describe the preliminary work that took place within the first few years of the project, and the challenges faced by the consortium. The second talk will focus on the harmonisation process and on the development of the health metric, an indicator used to measure healthy ageing in this project. The third talk will focus on inequalities in healthy ageing, specifically investigating the impact of education and wealth across cohorts. Finally, in the last talk we will describe the role of lifestyle behaviours (specifically physical activity, smoking and alcohol consumption) and their impact on healthy ageing trajectories.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill and factors associated with depressive symptoms among residents of the Mississippi Gulf Coast

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 534-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joohee Lee ◽  
Tim Rehner ◽  
Hwanseok Choi ◽  
Alan Bougere ◽  
Tom Osowski
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
Physical Symptoms ◽  
Psychological Effects ◽  
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Study Results ◽  
The Impact

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to extend prior research on the psychological effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster by developing and testing a conceptual model in which exposure to the oil spill through clean-up activity, physical symptoms, worry about the impact of the oil spill on health, and the disruption of the gulf/ocean-related lifestyle were hypothesized as predictors of depressive symptoms. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis included a randomly selected sample of 354 subjects from the three most Southern Mississippi counties. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale was used to measure depressive symptoms. Findings – Results indicated that physical symptoms since the oil spill were related to depressive symptoms directly and indirectly through worry about the impact of the oil spill on health and the disruption of the gulf/ocean-related lifestyle. Worry about the impact of the oil spill on health was related to depressive symptoms directly and indirectly through the disruption of the gulf/ocean-related lifestyle. Originality/value – Study results highlight that uncertainty and worry about the impact of the disaster played a critical role in understanding the psychological effects of the oil spill disaster, especially among coastal residents whose lifestyles were bound up with the gulf/ocean.

A Longitudinal Study of the Mental and Behavioral Health Effects Expressed in Lower Alabama Areas Affected by the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (1) ◽  
pp. 300245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Langhinrichsen-Rohling ◽  
Mattie Kahn ◽  
Candice N. Selwyn ◽  
Adrianne C. McCullars ◽  
Mai Var ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Behavioral Health ◽  
Health Effects ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
Symptom Expression ◽  
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill ◽  
Health Symptoms ◽  
Over Time

On April 20th, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. This spill affected approximately 181 miles of Gulf Coast shoreline and impacted the livelihood of residents within Lower Alabama. Previous studies have shown increased behavioral health symptoms following high magnitude natural disasters. Symptom expression typically adheres to one of several trajectories: recovery, evidenced by gradual declines in symptoms over time, or delayed disruptions in functioning, evidenced by gradual increases in symptoms over time. However, very few existing studies have investigated the long term behavioral health effects of a large-scale technological disaster. Surveillance of mental and behavioral health symptoms over time can inform needed resiliency-restoring and recovery-related service provision resources. Using health surveillance methodology, plots were developed to depict the trajectory of behavioral health symptoms expressed by service-seeking Alabama Gulf Coast residents (n = 3,731 people) within impacted areas of Mobile and Baldwin counties. The presented data represents information gathered from disaster- deployed mental health service providers (e.g., number of patients treated and their behavioral health symptoms) in order to monitor fluctuations in behavioral health indicators across the recovery period. Six distinct time points were included in the analyses (6, 12, 18, 24, 30, and 36 months post-spill) Results demonstrate a period of recovery between 6 months and 18 months post-spill as evidenced by a gradual decline in behavioral health symptoms. However, beginning around 18 months post-spill and continuing through Year 3, delayed disruptions in functioning were evidenced by gradually increasing reports of behavioral health symptoms over time. Plots of symptom type and frequency will be presented as these demonstrate the need for programs such as the Gulf Region Health Outreach Program (GRHOP).Overall, the current study offers insight into the pattern of behavioral health responses experienced by Coastal Alabama residents over the three year period following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Results suggest that behavioral health symptoms in need of treatment still persist, with a trend of increasing symptoms present over the past year and a half. Several factors may be impacting continued symptom expression including ongoing litigation related to the oil spill, a lack of behavioral health care capacity within the Gulf Coast region, and the large percentage of individuals within the region who are experiencing on-going poverty and a lack of access to affordable health care.

scholarly journals Is There a New Normal For Natural Resource Damage Settlements Since the Deepwater Horizon Settlement?

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard W. Dunford ◽  
Gerald F. George
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Statistical Model ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
The United States ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
New Normal ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT Recently, Dunford, et al. (2019) published a statistical model analyzing the variation in natural resource damage (NRD) settlement amounts for oil spills in the United States. One of the significant explanatory factors in the statistical model was the impact of the unprecedented magnitude of the NRD settlement in the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill. Specifically, while the settlement itself was excluded in the statistical analysis, NRD settlements for oil spills that were lodged after the DWH settlement were almost four times the amount of NRD settlements for oil spills that were lodged prior to DWH settlement, holding other factors equal. For simplicity, we refer to this phenomenon as the “DWH effect.” In our paper we examine three potential causes of the DWH effect. Since there were only five settlements between the DWH settlement in 2015 and the end of 2017 (the last year in the database), one potential cause is a small-sample effect. Specifically, the five spills that settled may have had particularly severe natural resource injuries, resulting in much greater NRD. This cause seemed unlikely based on our review of the five spills. Adding NRD settlements in the last three years for five more spills to the Dunford et al. (2019) database and re-running their model lowered the DWH effect multiplier to 2.4 from about four. Thus, expanding the sample size with five recent settlements lowered the DWH effect, but it remains quite substantial. A second cause of the DWH effect may be an anchoring effect. By its nature, measurement of NRD is imprecise, and in the absence of litigation, parties have been left to look to past settlements for benchmarks in settlement negotiations. The DWH settlement may have raised the expectations of natural resource Trustees in negotiating settlements in later NRD cases. At the same time, the magnitude of the DWH settlement may have made responsible parties more comfortable with higher settlement amounts. This cause seems likely. A third potential contribution to the DWH effect may be associated with a shifting of other oil spill liabilities under the Oil Pollution Act (e.g., fines and penalties) into NRD liability. Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs), which are often used to reduce monetary fines for spills, may have played a smaller role in recent settlements, and are disfavored under the current U.S. Department of Justice. Both Trustees and parties responsible for oil spills may be willing to shift penalties or SEPs into NRD for different reasons, as discussed in our paper. However, we found little evidence to support this cause of the DWH effect. A key question is whether the DWH effect is temporary or permanent. Our addition of five recent NRD settlements to the Dunford, et al. (2019) statistical analysis provides some support for a declining DWH effect over time. However, given the dynamics of the NRD negotiation process, we suspect that the DWH settlement has established a new plateau for future NRD settlements, leaving the DWH effect as the new normal.

scholarly journals Professionalization and Professionalism: the Case of Italian Dentistry

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanna Vicarelli ◽  
Elena Spina
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
First Line ◽  
Current Configuration ◽  
The Third ◽  
Dental Profession ◽  
Third Line ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

The aim of this article is to reconstruct the process of professionalization of Italian dentists and the profession’s current configuration. It is based on three lines of inquiry. The first line adopts a historical perspective through the analysis of legislation that has regulated the dental sector over time. The second line depicts the current configuration of the profession through institutional and sectoral statistics. The third line focuses on the impact of the 2008 economic crisis, using the main findings of a survey conducted among the profession’s representatives. The economic crisis has exacerbated the profession’s structural weaknesses caused by the difficulties associated with self-regulation and by organizational–managerial inefficiency. Given this situation, one may inquire as to the actual professional nature of dentistry in Italy: It is not pointless to ask whether—and, if so, what type of—professionalism exists in dentistry in Italy today. Keywords: Italian dental profession, professionalization, professionalism, economic crisis, occupational change.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document