Consequences of large-scale salinity alteration during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on subtidal oyster populations

Details

• Journal Title:
  Marine Ecology Progress Series
• Personal Author:
  Powers, SP ; Grabowski, JH ; Roman, H ; Geggel, A ; Rouhani, S ; Oehrig, J ; Baker, M
• NOAA Program & Office:
  NOS (National Ocean Service) ; ORR (Office of Response and Restoration) ; DWH (Deepwater Horizon)
• Description:
  Response actions associated with oil spills often have significant impacts on ecological communities. During the 87 d long Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the State of Louisiana (USA) released vast quantities of Mississippi River water into 2 estuarine basins (Barataria Bay and Black Bay/Breton Sound) in response to the approach of oil. We assessed the impact on subtidal oyster populations of this novel oil spill response action using 3 independent methods: (1) comparison of fisheries-independent post-spill densities to a pre-spill temporal baseline; (2) comparison of oyster density collected during natural resource damage assessment sampling between the area of maximal freshwater impact and reference areas in the 2 basins; and (3) estimation from a dose-response model derived from an analysis of an in situ mark and recapture study conducted in 2010 to assess the relationship between salinity and oyster mortality. A substantial portion of both basins (483 km2 of Barataria Bay and 362 km2 of Black Bay/Breton Sound) experienced prolonged periods of very low (<5 ppt) salinity in 2010 that lasted at least 1 mo longer than the average duration of low salinity between 2006 and 2009. The 3 approaches all indicate that dramatic losses occurred in the number of market-sized (>75 mm) oysters as a result of a system-wide lowering of salinities, with an estimated 1.16 to 3.29 billion market-equivalent oysters lost. The efficacy of the large-scale response action of altering hydrographic conditions during the summer oyster growth period should be examined in light of the major perturbation to oyster communities.
• Keywords:
  BP Deepwater Horizon Explosion And Oil Spill, 2010 Crassostrea Virginica Estuaries Oysters BP Deepwater Horizon Explosion And Oil Spill, 2010 Crassostrea Virginica
• Source:
  Marine Ecology Progress Series, 576, 175-187
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.3354/meps12147
• ISSN:
  0171-8630 ; 1616-1599
• Publisher:
  Inter-Research Science Center
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Mexico, Gulf of
• License:
  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Rights Information:
  CC BY
• Compliance:
  Library
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:19e0d3308685bf3ecaae3cd5a4d9b22c943aa99652aa1c341be8dfa943b57294
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/50772/noaa_50772_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.01 MB ]