Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume 7, Issue 3, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/7/3/035302
Keywords
Deepwater Horizon oil spill; Northern Gulf of Mexico; n-alkane hydrocarbon; trace metals; polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon; alkylated PAHs; sediment; salt marsh
Funding
- NOAA [NA07NOS4780225]
- HYPOX corer
- National Science Foundation [OCE-1042908]
- OTIC [OCE-0752105]
- Gulf Research Initiative (DROPPS Consortium)
- The University of Texas at Austin
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The oil released during the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill may have both short-and long-time impacts on the northern Gulf of Mexico ecosystems. An understanding of how the composition and concentration of the oil are altered by weathering, including chemical, physical and biological processes, is needed to evaluate the oil toxicity and impact on the ecosystem in the northern Gulf of Mexico. This study examined petroleum hydrocarbons in oil mousse collected from the sea surface and salt marshes, and in oil deposited in sediments adjacent to the wellhead after the DWH oil spill. Oil mousses were collected at two stations (OSS and CT, located 130 and 85 km away from the wellhead, respectively) in May 2010, and two sediment samples from stations SG and SC, within 6 km of the wellhead, in May 2011. We also collected oil mousse from salt marshes at Marsh Point (MP), Mississippi, 186 km away from the wellhead in July 2010. In these samples, n-alkanes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), alkylated PAHs, BTEX (collective name of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and p-, m-, and o-xylenes), C3-benzenes and trace metals were measured to examine how the oil was altered chemically. The chemical analysis indicates that the oil mousses underwent different degrees of weathering with the pattern of OSS < CT < MP. This pattern is consistent with the projected oil mousse movement from the accident site to salt marshes. Also, the contents of trace metals Al, V, Cr, Fe, Mn, Ni, Co, Cu, As and Pb in the oil mousse generally increased along the way to the salt marshes, indicating that these trace metals were perhaps aggregated into the oil mousse during the transport. Petroleum hydrocarbon data reveal that the oil deposited in sediments underwent only light to moderate degradation one year after the DWH oil spill, as supported by the presence of short-chained n-alkanes (C10-C15), BTEX and C3-benzenes. The weathering of oil in sediment may result from biological degradation and dissolution, evidenced by the preferential loss of mid-chained n- alkanes C16-C27, lower ratios of n-C-17/Pr and n-C-18/Ph, and preferential loss of PAHs relative to alkylated PAHs.
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