Monday, March 13, 2017
By Ken Branson
A new study from a
Coastal Waters Consortium team of researchers led by Rutgers University postdoctoral researcher, Michael McCann, has found which birds, fish, insects and other animals affected by the
Deepwater Horizon explosion should be given top priority for conservation, protection and research.
Until now scientists didn’t know which kinds of animals were most affected and what impact their collective fates had on the food chain after the offshore oil rig
Deepwater Horizon exploded in 2010 and dumped 4.9 million barrels of oil into Louisiana’s salt marshes.
“There were lots of studies about who eats whom, and about what species are sensitive to oil,” says Olaf Jensen, professor of marine and coastal sciences in the
School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, and co-author of the study. “We put those together and asked, ‘Who is both important in the food web and really sensitive to oil?’” These are the species most in need of protection because their loss can have ripple effects throughout the food chain, said Jensen.
The study, published this month in
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, in which the team of scientists from Rutgers University,
Louisiana State University,
Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium,
University of North Carolina,
East Carolina University, and
Stony Brook University constructed a marsh food web for Barataria Bay, Louisiana. The study found that killifish played a key role in the food web and fared relatively well in the wake of the spill.
The researchers determined that terns, gulls and wading birds, such as herons, were both sensitive to oil and so extensively connected to other animals as prey and predator that their loss would impact other species in the food chain. Some studies indicate that the mortality among terns and gulls in Barataria Bay was as high as 32 percent.
]“We didn’t just want to find winners and losers from the effects of the spill,” says McCann, the study’s lead author, now a scientist at the Nature Conservancy but a Rutgers postdoctoral researcher when the study was done. “We wanted to find out what role each kind of animal would play in how a food web responds to something like this oil spill.”
Some animals, such as roundworms, were found to be highly sensitive to the oil, but were not considered to be critical to the food chain because they are not highly connected to other animals as prey or predator.
Finally, the scientists identified several species as key to the saltmarsh ecosystem that should be considered top priorities for future research. Blue crabs were among such animals.
“Our analysis identified blue crab as one of the most important species in the Louisiana salt marshes because they eat or are eaten by nearly every other animal in this environment,” says co-author Michael Polito, assistant professor of oceanography and coastal studies at Louisiana State University
College of the Coast and Environment. “As the sensitivity of blue crabs to oil is still unclear, future work is needed to clarify how oil spills might affect this important species and result in changes throughout the salt marsh ecosystem.”
This collaborative Coastal Waters Consortium effort was made possible by a grant from the
Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI).
http://news.rutgers.edu/research-news/after-deepwater-horizon-spill-which-animals-weathered-disaster/20170313#.WMfpx1XaeUk The Rez app ready for Apple devices The Pearl River Valley Water Supply District has introduced a new cell phone app —called The Rez —that is free and currently available for Apple devices at the App Store.
It will be available to Android users in mid to late April.
“Since the technology exists to help connect our agency with the public, especially our constituents who live at The Rez, we decided to utilize it,” said PRVWSD general manager John Sigman. “This app gives people immediate access to emergency announcements and other information about Barnett Reservoir.”
For example, when PRVWSD residents register, and include their subdivision, a program within the app will allow the agency to immediately contact the user with announcements, such as boil water notices, that affect specific areas.
The app’s home page includes weather and links to PRVWSD’s staff, upcoming events, accounts, regulations, recreational opportunities and the opportunity to set up on-line payments.
Find The Rez app today at Apple’s app store, download it and be better connected with PRVWSD and the reservoir community
