Thresholds in marsh resilience to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Details

• Journal Title:
  Scientific Reports
• Personal Author:
  Silliman, Brian R. ; Dixon, Philip M. ; Wobus, Cameron ; He, Qiang ; Daleo, Pedro ; Hughes, Brent B. ; Rissing, Matthew ; Willis, Jonathan M. ; Hester, Mark W.
• NOAA Program & Office:
  DWH (Deepwater Horizon)
• Description:
  Ecosystem boundary retreat due to human-induced pressure is a generally observed phenomenon. However, studies that document thresholds beyond which internal resistance mechanisms are overwhelmed are uncommon. Following the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, field studies from a few sites suggested that oiling of salt marshes could lead to a biogeomorphic feedback where plant death resulted in increased marsh erosion. We tested for spatial generality of and thresholds in this effect across 103 salt marsh sites spanning ~430 kilometers of shoreline in coastal Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, using data collected as part of the natural resource damage assessment (NRDA). Our analyses revealed a threshold for oil impacts on marsh edge erosion, with higher erosion rates occurring for ~1–2 years after the spill at sites with the highest amounts of plant stem oiling (90–100%). These results provide compelling evidence showing large-scale ecosystem loss following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. More broadly, these findings provide rare empirical evidence identifying a geomorphologic threshold in the resistance of an ecosystem to increasing intensity of human-induced disturbance.
• Keywords:
  BP Deepwater Horizon Explosion And Oil Spill, 2010 Marshes BP Deepwater Horizon Explosion And Oil Spill, 2010
• Source:
  Sci Rep. 2016; 6: 32520.
• DOI:
  https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep32520
• Pubmed ID:
  27679956
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC5040145
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Rights Information:
  CC BY
• Compliance:
  PMC
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:50958041cdf5c37c5a8a9df4214f0b0ff44d45a1a00d45fe29e8dd67950e3a89
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/27618/noaa_27618_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.21 MB ]