Qualifications:

Master’s degree in Environmental Sciences, Geosciences, Marine Biology, Computer Science, or related field. Four (4) years of related experience. Any combination of experience and education may be used.

Demonstrated experience in management of marine or environmental datasets, including design, acquisition, post-processing, quality assurance, and documentation. Experience in conducting data analysis, preparing summary reports, and visualizations.

Experience with database management systems, Esri’s ArcGIS software suite (version 9.3 or higher), Microsoft Office, and basic programming and scripting.

Strong organizational skills and the ability to handle multiple concurrent projects. Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Job Duties:

Coordinate and perform collection, management, and analysis of marine and environmental data

Assist in the design, implementation, and management of the data systems and procedures for the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC).

Research data and metadata standards and formats to provide guidance and ensure compliance.

Work with GoMRI and GRIIDC developers to make data accessible via intranet and internet applications.

Design and generate derived products, including maps, tables, databases, charts, and reports.

Produce and maintain project documentation, including reports, schedules, and presentations.

Provide technical assistance and support to GoMRI researchers and other users of GRIIDC data management systems

Special Notices:

Texas A&M Corpus Christi is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer committed to diversity.

This is a grant funded position. Continued employment is contingent upon continued funding.

The Data Analyst is primarily responsible for management of marine and environmental datasets, and will also assist in the design, implementation, and management of the data systems and procedures for the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC).

Secondarily: (1) Coordinate and perform collection, management, and analysis of marine and environmental data; (2) Research data and metadata standards and formats to provide guidance and ensure compliance; (3) Work with GoMRI and GRIIDC developers to make data accessible via intranet and internet applications; (4) Design and generate derived products, including maps, tables, databases, charts, and reports; (5) Produce and maintain project documentation, including reports, schedules, and presentations; and (6) Provide technical assistance and support to GoMRI researchers and other users of GRIIDC data management systems.

GRIIDC is a data stewardship program which seeks to address the needs of Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) researchers, and to ensure a data and information legacy that promotes continual scientific discovery of the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem. GRIIDC will work with many disparate scientific and environmental data formats and standards.

For more information and to apply, click here. Job #9741

Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or similar field. Two (2) years related experience. Advanced knowledge and demonstrated experience in designing, configuring, and managing multiple relational database management systems. Additional experience may be used for the education requirement.

Strong demonstrated SQL query and data analysis experience. Demonstrated experience or familiarity with object-relational databases (PostgreSQL).

Excellent interpersonal and verbal and written communication skills.

Job Duties:

Design, implementation, and management of the database systems and procedures for the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC).

Install, configure, and maintain database systems.

Perform extract, transform, load (ETL) operations for database development, testing, and publication.

Maintain data integrity by implementing, managing, and testing backup and recovery solutions.

Ensure data security by managing database access protocols.

Coordinates with GoMRI and GRIIDC system developers to make data accessible via Intranet and Internet applications.

Perform data quality analysis through the implementation of data codification, data cleansing, and data filtering.

Prepare data for analysis, generate reports and assist in technical documentation of the deployed systems.

Provide technical assistance and training to clients as needed.

Special Notices:

The database administrator, in close coordination with GRIIDC Director and Systems Architect, is primarily responsible for the design, implementation, and management of the database systems and procedures for the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC).

GRIIDC is a data stewardship program which seeks to address the needs of Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) researchers, and to ensure a data and information legacy that promotes continual scientific discovery of the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem. GRIIDC will work with many disparate scientific and environmental data formats and standards.

This is a grant funded position. Continued employment is contingent upon continued funding.

Texas A&M Corpus Christi is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer committed to diversity.

For more information and to apply, click here. Job #9809

Qualifications:  PhD in Applied Mathematics, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Physical Oceanography or a closely related field (Physics, Atmospheric Sciences) is required. Experience with Large-Eddy-Simulations of turbulence, multi-phase flow modeling and/or geophysical fluid mechanics is required.

The research will involve both theoretical and large-scale computational modeling.  Successful candidates will be expected to interact with researchers at the University of Miami and Florida State University. Funds for extended collaborative travel to these institutions are available. Work will begin in summer 2012 and applicants should  be able to participate at that time.

To apply: Please apply through mathjobs.org website to reference job #3718.
For more information, contact Prof. Andrew Poje at poje@math.csi.cuny.edu

(Click to enlarge) Killifish Fundulus grandis. (Credit: Dr. Stephen “Ash” Bullard)

April 2012. Why would scientists select a small marsh minnow to help them understand the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill?

For starters, the Gulf killifish (Fundulus grandis) is a marsh-dependent, easy to catch, abundant fish that ranges across the Gulf of Mexico basin. These fish are small enough to handle easily but big enough for conducting tissue studies.  

Killifishes are promising biosensors of aquatic pollution, and researchers can use them as a model species to understand environmental changes.  Killifish could become the marine science equivalent of the white mouse used in medical science.  – Dr. Stephen “Ash” Bullard, Auburn University

An important characteristic about killifish is they do not move around much (their populations remain largely separated). This means that killifish in Mississippi marshes do not routinely mix with killifish in Louisiana’s Barataria Bay – they have not travelled long distances or through other waters. Therefore, scientists can work from the assumption that if an area was exposed to oil, then so have the killifish that were captured from those oiled areas.

As an added benefit, scientists at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science have been studying the effects of oil on a closely-related species, the mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus), which lives along the Atlantic coast.   The killifish connection with mummichog offers the opportunity to draw on existing research and the potential for Gulf oil research to have implications for other places. All these factors contribute to scientists’ strategic selection of killifish as a model organism in marine science based on their biological attributes and distribution in nature.

The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GOMRI) has funded five projects that involve killifish in their studies – three immediately after the oil spill and two follow-up a year later.

Year One studies included:

1)    Detection of Impacts of DHOS-Related Hydrocarbon Dispersant Discharge in North Central Gulf of Mexico Estuaries Using Gulf Killifish Fundulus grandis as an Aquatic Vertebrate Sentinel – Drs. Stephen Bullard and Calvin Johnson (Auburn University) and Dr. Kristi Crowe (University of Alabama)

2)    The Influence of Oil Dispersants on the Biodegradation of South Louisiana Crude Oil and the Resulting Toxicological, Molecular and Physiological Effects on the Gulf Killifish – Drs. Christopher Green, Fernando Galvez, and Andy Nyman (Louisiana State University) and Dr. Greg Mayer (Texas Tech University)

3)    Analysis of the Effects of Crude Oil on Increased Disease Susceptibility and Physiological Responses of Selected Gulf of Mexico Fishes – Drs. Lora Petrie-Hanson and Peter J. Allen (Mississippi State University)

Follow-up studies included:

4)    Sampling for Reproductive and Developmental Recovery in Fish from the Gulf of Mexico One Year After Exposure to BP Oil/Dispersants – Dr. James A. Carr, Deborah L. Car, and Earnest E. Smith (Texas Tech University) and Dr. Arunthavarani Thiyagarajah (Tulane University)

5)    Emergency Funds to Continue Monitoring DHOS Effects within a Heavily-Oiled Gulf of Mexico Salt Marsh – Barataria Bay, Louisiana – Drs. Stephen Bullard and Covadonga R. Arias (Auburn University) with Michael A. Unger (Virginia Institute of Marine Science)

This research was made possible by a grant from BP/The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative. The GoMRI is a 10-year, $500 million independent research program established by an agreement between BP and the Gulf of Mexico Alliance to study the effects of the Deepwater Horizon incident and the potential associated impact of this and similar incidents on the environment and public health.

(Click to enlarge) Technician Jonathan Delgardio (GT) and undergrad student Will A. Overholt (GT) collecting samples from a sampling trench on Pensacola Beach. Oil layers can be seen in the cross section of the sediment.

With buckets and shovels in hand, scientists have collected and are analyzing oil found in the sediments of Gulf coast beaches. With support from a Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) grant, Dr. Markus Huettel of Florida State University (FSU) and Dr. Joel Kostka of the Georgia Institute of Technology (GT) are working to understand the impacts of buried sheets of oil and tar from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

In late June 2010, a little over two months after oil began pumping from the ruins of the Deepwater Horizon, Hurricane Alex pushed oil toward the shoreline in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. While monitoring sites along the Alabama and Florida coasts, Huettel and Kostka noticed a problem that needed immediate attention—the wind and waves from Hurricane Alex had buried the existing sheets of oil and tar on Florida’s beaches with sediment.

Huettel, who specializes in the study of sediments in a coastal zone, explains the significance of the oil beneath the sand surface,

“One to two feet of sediment was on top of the existing oil deposited by the spill—in some places even more. Oil not exposed to light, high temperatures, and oxygen doesn’t degrade as fast. Most of the oil that reaches the shoreline is broken down or biodegraded by oil-eating bacteria” — Dr. Markus Huettel

Kostka, a marine microbiologist that studies oil-degraders continued,

“In the presence of oxygen, oil buried in warm Gulf sands will be degraded in weeks to months, whereas oil is likely to persist in the sands for years without oxygen.”  – Dr. Joel Kostka

Huettel and Kostka’s discovery led to concern that harmful polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) could get into the groundwater if the oil remained buried deep in the sediment.

To address this problem, BP initiated a deep cleansing process. New machinery was brought in to remove the upper layer of sediment, and then the material was sifted in an attempt to remove buried oil and tar. While this physical cleaning removed many of the larger oil particles such as tar balls from the buried oil layers, smaller oil particles remained on the beach. While Huettel felt that the process of sifting increased the exposure of those remaining particles to the elements speeding degradation, scientists are continuing to monitor for presence of PAHs in the area.

(Click to enlarge) Graduate student John Kaba (FSU) with a sediment core taken at Pensacola Beach.

The collection sites that Huttel and Kostka  studied included Pensacola, FL and Bon Secour, AL, and they used Laguna Beach and St. George Island, FL as control sites. They were able to “fingerprint” the oil, i.e., look at various biological and geological components to be sure what they were studying did indeed come from the Deepwater Horizon spill. Microbial communities were also fingerprinted using the latest genetic techniques to uncover “microbial indicators” of the various stages of oil degradation.  Huettel and Kostka have completed their data collection for this first phase of their research and are now processing their samples.

Huettel and Kostka will extend their study in conjunction with the recently-awarded GoMRI Deep-C research consortium led by FSU. Using a methodology similar to that employed on the beach study sites, Huettel and Kostka will look at the sea floor of the Florida Panhandle shelf. The purpose of this phase of their research will be to attempt to locate oil layers that may be buried in the floor of the eastern Gulf of Mexico and could be exposed or dislodged during future tropical weather events.

This research was made possible by a grant from BP/The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative. The GoMRI is a 10-year, $500 million independent research program established by an agreement between BP and the Gulf of Mexico Alliance to study the effects of the Deepwater Horizon incident and the potential associated impact of this and similar incidents on the environment and public health.

(Click to enlarge) Researchers collect water samples using a plankton net. Onboard the R/V Bellows are Jim Nienow (PI Valdosta State) and Arjun Adhikari (student Valdosta State). (Photo by Richard Snyder, University of West FL.)

March, 2012 –  Dr. Ian MacDonald with Florida State University (FSU) and Dr. Richard Snyder with the University of West Florida (UWF) have been leading a research team to track and identify oil in sediment and water samples since January 2011. The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) supports this group’s work at sea as they contribute to understanding the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

We are most concerned about the mixing of water masses from the deep Gulf with shelf and coastal waters and the biological reactions to the water mass mixing.  With the potential for oil dispersed throughout the water column and on the surface coming onto the shelf from deepwater drilling activity, we realized that we knew very little about this area of the Gulf; its dynamics and biological reactions to changing environmental conditions.  We will be sampling sediment and water across the shelf and the head of DeSoto Canyon to better understand the system and provide a benchmark from which to measure future stability or change — Dr. Richard Snyder, lead scientist.

Members of this research cruise team include Dr. Wade Jeffrey (UWF), Dr. Jim Nienow (Valdosta State), and Dr. Woody Wise (FSU). Graduate and undergraduate students are also on these cruises in support of the research and to obtain training in shipboard oceanography.

Their March 17-20 cruise out of Pensacola onboard the R/V Bellows continues their work on three transects covering the FL shelf south of Pensacola, Destin, and Panama City. Another cruise is scheduled in May. For more information about this project, visit the GoMRI FIO Projects (title: Coast Watch: Remote Sensing and Verification Sampling of Oil Spill Impact on Florida Coast).

(Click to enlarge) Onboard the R/V Bellows, researchers collect water samples taken at various depths from the CTC rosette for microscopic identification, nutrient chemistry, DNA extraction for microbial community structure of prokaryotes and eukaryotes, and for primary and bacteria production rates. From L-R: Mohammed Aljahdali (FSU student), Arjun Adhikari (Valdosta State student), Jim Nienow (PI at Valdosta State), Alexander Ren and Lois O’Boyle (UWF students). (Photo by Richard Snyder / UWF)

Their sampling work will continue quarterly through 2013 as part of the GoMRI-funded DEEP-C research consortium where Dr. Ian MacDonald is the research cruise coordinator. Their first cruise is March 20-29 onboard the R/V Weatherbird II and will focus on the oceanographic dynamics associated with DeSoto Canyon and its connection with the deep Gulf and the Florida panhandle shelf. Their work will build upon previous sampling, collecting hydrographic, water chemistry, and biological data at all taxonomic levels.

This research was made possible by a grant from BP/The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative. The GoMRI is a 10-year, $500 million independent research program established by an agreement between BP and the Gulf of Mexico Alliance to study the effects of the Deepwater Horizon incident and the potential associated impact of this and similar incidents on the environment and public health.

(Click to enlarge) USF PhD researcher Daniela Stebbins prepares a pad of prickly pear cactus for processing into mucilage in an experimental project to develop a new, non-toxic oil dispersant. Credit Katy Hennig/University of South Florida .

Associate professor of chemical engineering Norma Alcantar is filing for an international patent for a cactus mucilage as an oil dispersant.

(From the University of South Florida) — A University of South Florida engineering professor and a team of researchers have found that mucilage from the common and easily grown prickly pear cactus – already known to clean toxic compounds from drinking water – also works as a natural, non-toxic dispersant for oil spills.

Mucilage is the thick, glue-like substance from the plant.

In research stemming from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, Norma Alcantar, an associate professor of chemical engineering, said a powdered form of the cactus mucilage absorbs the oil and breaks it into smaller droplets, allowing the oil to degrade faster. Alcantar and the research group have spent nearly two years investigating the use of the cactus mucilage and is part of a nationwide project looking for natural alternatives to harsh chemical dispersants.

The April 20, 2010 collapse of BP’s Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico created one of the nation’s largest and costliest natural disasters. The use of the chemical dispersant Corexit to combat the spill remains one of the most controversial and studied events of the disaster, with scientists examining long-term effects from the dispersant in the Gulf environment.

With initial funding from the National Science Foundation, Alcantar is working with the Consortium for the Molecular Engineering of Dispersants Systems (C-MEDS), a nationwide group of scientists funded through the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, who are focusing on finding effective alternatives to chemical dispersants. Alcantar is joined by USF Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Ryan Toomey and researchers  Dawn Fox, Maria Celis, and Daniela Stebbins in the project. 

Unlike chemical dispersants, the cactus mucilage is not toxic and is harmless in an ocean environment, Alcantar said. In the plant, mucilage helps hold water in the cactus leaves but can be extracted from the leaves through simple processing. The leaves themselves are consumed as a vegetable throughout Latin America. 

“If you have an alternative from natural material, I think it’s better for the environment,” Alcantar said. “There is nothing toxic about this product. It’s edible by humans. In Mexico, it’s part of the daily diet. It’s delicious.”

The mucilage in Opuntia ficus-indica - more commonly known as the Nopal or prickly pear cactus – is a gum-like substance derived from the paddle-shaped leaves of the plant. The thick mucilage is extruded from the plant, dried and ground into a powder that when applied to the oil binds to oil molecules. 

In lab experiments in which the mucilage powder is applied to crude oil similar to what spilled in the BP disaster, the mucilage is able to disperse the oil film as well as absorb it. In bodies of water such as the Gulf of Mexico, the oil droplets bound by the mucilage can be biodegraded by microbes.

Lab results show that that dispersant particle size and distribution can be affected by the salt concentration of the water, but the mucilage is effective under salt concentrations similar to the ocean, Alcantar said.

Alcantar said more research is needed to determine how the mucilage powder can be used on larger slicks and in realistic ocean conditions, but she is confident enough in her discovery to file for an international patent for the cactus mucilage as a oil dispersant. Alcantar holds a 2011U.S. patent on mucilage for water purification uses.

Producing the mucilage powder won’t present any hurdles, Alcantar said. The plant is pervasive throughout the Western Hemisphere and is easily found worldwide. The plant is easy to grow; producing three cycles of new leaves in a year and requiring little water.

Having learned of its use to clean contaminated water from her grandmother in Mexico, Alcantar began to investigate eight years ago whether there was science behind the home remedy that had been handed down for generations.

There was. She discovered that by peeling, chopping and boiling the cactus pad, the thick, gummy mucilage would be expelled from the plant and bind with the contaminants in the water, including bacteria, heavy metals and arsenic. Her discovery made international headlines as a low-cost, sustainable measure that could be used to address the clean water crisis in impoverished countries. 

To view Alcantar’s patent application through the World Intellectual Property Organization, click here.

(From MOTE) – Mote’s oil response is a team effort among a diverse group of scientists who study everything from marine species such as corals, dolphins and sharks, to those who look for the smallest changes in the DNA of organisms. The wide range of research undertaken at Mote is also shedding light on many possible effects of the spill, which could ripple throughout the food web that underpins the health of the Gulf.

Mote scientists and colleagues have worked to guide crucial research and raise awareness about the spill’s impacts through multiple national-level symposia. In 2011 those efforts included “Beyond the Horizon” — a conference hosted by Mote to highlight valuable habitats and needed protections for the Gulf. Mote also joined with partners at the National Aquarium and Johns Hopkins University in November 2011 for the conference “NRDA for the Gulf: Improving Our Ability to Quantify Chronic Damages” — a discussion of how to best study and measure long-term damage to the Gulf. 

Now, as the Gulf research community reports oil-related effects on deep-sea corals and plankton, along with major concerns for the health of dolphins, fish and other species potentially harmed by oil, Mote is more dedicated than ever to its long-term focus on the spill.

“From the early days after the Deepwater Horizon blowout, we have emphasized that this oil spill could have major effects years down the road at every level of the Gulf ecosystem,” said Dr. Michael Crosby, Senior Vice President for Research at Mote. “Now, as the health of many species is called into question, we remain steadfast in our commitment to research for the benefit of this vital body of water.”

Mote’s efforts to study the spill have been strong from the start thanks to supporters in the Southwest Florida community, including the Gulf Coast Community Foundation and individual donors. “We are especially grateful to the community members who helped Mote make a rapid response to the spill,” said Mote President and CEO Dr. Kumar Mahadevan. “As we continue working to understand the effects of this disaster, we express our sincere gratitude for those who have shown their support for the Gulf.”

Click here to read full story.

The researchers are using a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) to collect data about the impacts of natural seepage versus large, abrupt oil impacts in deepwater ecosystems.  The ECOGIG research cruises will visit natural seep sites in the northern Gulf of Mexico, sites impacted by the Macondo blowout, including deepwater coral sites, and control sites.

Highsmith is the director of the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) ECOGIG consortium which brings together physical oceanographers, marine biologists, and chemists from 14 research institutions to understand the impacts of hydrocarbon inputs in deepwater ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico and to chart the long-term effects and mechanisms of ecosystem recovery from the Deepwater Horizon incident.

This research was made possible by a grant from BP/The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative. The GoMRI is a 10-year, $500 million independent research program established by an agreement between BP and the Gulf of Mexico Alliance to study the effects of the Deepwater Horizon incident and the potential associated impact of this and similar incidents on the environment and public health.

(Click to enlarge) LSU entomologist Linda Hooper-Bui lays out a cage of crickets for a study on the effects of oil on insects in the wetlands on the edge of Bay Jimmy, Friday, April 13, 2011. (Credit:Ted Jackson, The Times-Picayune)

LSU entomologist Linda Hooper-Bui and her graduate students spent a day last week putting down cages, each one containing 20 brown crickets, among sprigs of smooth cordgrass in a marsh by Bay Jimmy.

(From Nola.com / by Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune) – The bay in western Plaquemines Parish remains ground zero for efforts to clean remaining oil from the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and also has become a focal point of research into the spill’s effects on the environment.

Liquid, brownish-black oil continues to ooze from the soil in several places when it’s stepped on, and asphaltic maps of weathered oil dot the marsh surface.

The cages are placed 65 feet from oiled areas. While Bui says she doesn’t know whether the crickets will survive this spring, she’s not optimistic.

“When the marsh’s sediment is exposed and the temperature gets above 85 degrees Fahrenheit, the oil is being biologically degraded, the oil is releasing volatiles and is killing the crickets,” she said.

The problem is a combination of vapors given off by the weathered oil that scientists call BTEX, which stands for benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes. The highly toxic gases are believed responsible for the deaths of crickets in similar experiments last year at this location.

Her students also are finding that, in oiled areas, acrobat ants — their scientific name is Crematogaster pilosa — have mostly abandoned the hollow stems of the smooth cordgrass, where they normally forage for food.

In 2010, after the first oil hit Louisiana’s beaches, her students found an average 10 ants per stalk in oiled areas, compared with 34 in unoiled areas. By September, the average had dropped to less than a single ant per stalk in the oiled area.

Bui’s work represents only a tiny fraction of the massive volume of research being conducted locally in the two years since the Deepwater Horizon disaster as scientists attempt to explain what happened to the oil from the BP Macondo well, and its short-term and long-term effects on wildlife and humans.

Oil, gas largely gone

Snapshots of their findings have dribbled out in the form of peer-reviewed papers over those two years, with results that scientists have described as both promising, in terms of the speed with which the oil and gas have largely disappeared; and disconcerting, in terms of evidence that some toxic chemicals linked to the spill are making their way up the food chain to larger species and humans.

The research falls into three main categories: independent studies financed by grants from traditional science benefactors such as the federally funded National Science Foundation; studies commissioned by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative that are chosen and overseen by a team of independent researchers and underwritten by a 10-year, $500 million grant from BP; and a myriad of studies sponsored by federal and state agencies and Indian tribes and by BP as part of the federally required Natural Resource Damage Assessment process.

Studies from the first two categories are slowly being released after peer review.

The BP spill was unprecedented in how it happened and its potential effects, because the 4.9 million barrels of oil and a still-unknown amount of natural gas were released nearly a mile below the ocean’s surface. Much of the hot oil and gas immediately mixed with seawater and formed tiny droplets, bubbles of gas and crystals of frozen methane, much of which stayed in a plume that remained a half-mile to three-quarters of a mile below the surface.

Up the food chain

Published studies indicate the material in that plume was quickly eaten by microorganisms, which were then eaten by larger organisms, with some of the oil constituents making their way up the food chain.

“There’s clear evidence that some of the carbon in the food chain was from the oil,” said marine scientist Don Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and a member of President Barack Obama’s oil spill commission.

“A fairly recent paper shows some oil compounds themselves, not things turned into tissue, have been found in higher organisms,” he said.

About half the oil and some of the ice crystals did make it to the surface, but the journey weathered the oil and melted the crystals, and possibly stripped some of the more dangerous chemicals from them, Boesch said.

(Click to enlarge) The arms of a brittle starfish, red in color, cling to coral damaged by the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico in October 2010. (Credit: NOAA and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, via The Associated Press)

But there’s still concern that some of the oil droplets or microbes that ate the droplets and then died rained down on a large area of the seafloor around the well, said Samantha Joye, a marine scientist at the University of Georgia whose research spotted such material on and around deepwater coral reefs about 10 miles north of the well.

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in March found corals on those reefs were dead, and that “fingerprinting” of oily material on them matched the BP oil.

A January study published in Geophysical Research Papers found that tiny plankton that serve as food for early-life stages of fish and shrimp also contained toxic polyaromatic hydrocarbons linked to BP oil. The plankton were found in a wide area to the north and south of the BP well, including at the mouth of the Mississippi River.

Dreaded bacteria in tar balls

And a March study in the journal EcoHealth by Auburn University researchers found that tar balls washing up on beaches in Mississippi and Alabama contain Vibrio vulnificus bacteria at levels 10 times higher than in nearby sand and 100 times greater than in seawater.

(Click to enlarge) A March study in the journal EcoHealth by Auburn University researchers found that tar balls washing up on beaches in Mississippi and Alabama contain Vibrio vulnificus bacteria at levels 10 times higher than in nearby sand and 100 times greater than in seawater. Mickal Vogt of Covington was photographed June 12, 2010, using a stick to place tar balls in a jar in Orange Beach, Ala. (Credit: Dave Martin, The Associated Press archive)

Vibrio is a source of rare infections that can cause life-threatening vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and dermatitis. It is transmitted by eating contaminated seafood or through open cuts.

Some studies are having trouble getting off the ground, such as a National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences proposal to monitor for 10 years the health of as many as 150,000 people who participated in the cleanup. As of late February, only 10,000 workers had agreed to participate.

Finding a better dispersant

Some of the BP-sponsored studies, meanwhile, are aimed at finding ways of reducing damage from response strategies during the next spill.

An example is research into new chemical compounds that could be used to disperse oil, being conducted by a national team of scientists led by Tulane University chemist Vijay John.

“We operate under the premise that for spills like the Deepwater Horizon, the use of dispersants is necessary,” John said. “There’s been a lot of pressure to use more skimmers, but all the world’s ships and skimmers can pick up only a tiny fraction of what was spilled.”

The dispersants used during the BP spill were not designed to be sprayed into oil and gas and gas crystals a mile below the surface, he said.

“Can you cut down on their toxicity and make them more effective?” he asked rhetorically. He’s looking into dispersants that are delivered in dry form or encapsulated to reduce the need for toxic constituents.

That job is likely to take up to 10 years, he said, in part because different compounds are likely to be required for different environments, such as the extreme cold of the waters in Alaska.

“To be able to replace existing dispersants will take time and a clear demonstration of new materials and compounds that work significantly better than the old ones,” he said.

Research kept under wraps

The results of much of the research conducted under the Natural Resource Damage Assessment process has been kept under wraps while the government and BP continue to prepare for what could be a contentious trial to determine how much BP and other responsible parties may owe in federal Clean Water Act fines and NRDA-required projects to compensate for damage caused by the spill.

A study examining why hundreds of bottlenose dolphins have become stranded in Barataria Bay, with most dying, is one of the few cases where open research is combining with the NRDA process. NOAA-sponsored scientists had been tracking an “unusual mortality event” in the bay since February 2010, two months before the spill. Initial information found evidence that some of the dolphins had been killed by brucellosis, a lung disease better known for killing cows.

Researchers are studying whether oil that the dolphins swam through, or fumes they breathed, might have made them susceptible.

But still under wraps in the NRDA process are possible scientific forays into whether certain species of fish, land-based mammals or seagoing or shoreline birds have been affected by the spill.

Bui’s research is part of a $12 million, three-year study of the effects of the spill on near-shore and coastal environments that includes 26 scientists from a dozen universities around the nation. The team’s lead investigator, marine biologist Nancy Rabalais, is director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium in Cocodrie.

Money for the study comes from the BP Gulf research initiative, which is paid for by the oil giant but overseen by a board of nationally known, independent scientists.

Study of fish inner ears

Rabalais said others in her group are studying the effects of oil on the above- and below-ground growth of marsh plants, and on species of fish and mussels. One scientist will study the bony otolith — inner ear — of fish for signs that oil affects their growth. Growth patterns of otoliths are similar to the rings of trees.

(Click to enlarge) Louisiana State University Agricultural Center entomologist Linda Hooper-Bui collects sediment from a marsh in north Bay Batiste in Plaquemines Parish in September. (Credit: Xuan Chen, LSU AgCenter, via The Associated Press)

A similar study will be conducted of growth rings in mussel shells, she said.

Such studies are necessary to determine long-term effects, she said.

“Here, the marsh may look OK now, but there’s still a lot of oil out there,” Rabalais said. “But explaining exposure of marsh organisms is a complex task. When you’re trying to attribute an effect to oil versus other factors, the science is difficult.”

Complicating that process is the lack of pre-spill data, Rabalais and other scientists said.

In an article published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 22 researchers who have participated in BP studies challenged Congress to rewrite parts of the Oil Pollution Act to require spending more money on research before and after spills on the organisms that can be affected, including humans.

Unprepared in deep water

The BP disaster proved both scientists and regulators were preparing for a shallow-water spill, where the biggest concerns were onshore contamination of wildlife, the environment and humans. In fact, the spill represented an unprecedented threat to both onshore and deepwater resources, said lead author and University of North Carolina marine scientist Charles Peterson.

Congress made matters worse, Peterson said, by not making deepwater-drilling permits in the central and western Gulf of Mexico, including the BP well, require more extensive environmental reviews before the spill.

Joye, a co-author of the paper, said Congress also should require oceangoing research ships to be stationed full time in the Gulf and other drilling locations.