Tag Archives: Wetlands

Fact Sheet: ACER Education & Outreach Fact Sheets

The Alabama Center for Ecological Resilience (ACER) Consortium fact sheet series highlights the project’s research groups and their scientific focuses. These materials can be used as a classroom resource for science teachers on in the northern Gulf Coast research and for those with a general interest in oil spill research.

Introduction to ACER

A brief introduction to ACER and what they do. Click on the image or here to open the publication.

ACER’s Consumer Group

The Consumer research group focused on the top predators of the northern Gulf of Mexico ecosystem. Click on the image or here to open the publication.

ACER’s Wetland Group

The Wetland research group focused on the flora and fauna of coastal wetlands. Click on the image or here to open the publication.

ACER’s Oyster Group

The Oyster research group focused on the intertidal and subtidal oyster reefs along the northern Gulf Coast. Click on the image or here to open the publication.

ACER’s Nitrogen Cycling Group

The Nitrogen Cycling research group focused on the processes that convert nitrogen from one form to another in coastal habitats. Click on the image or here to open the publication.

ACER’s Microplankton Group

The Microplankton research group focused on how plankton, specifically plankton between 0.02 – 0.2 mm in size, are affected by oiling and the response to oiling (i.e. the use of dispersants). Click on the image or here to open the publication.

Sea Grant Publication Explains How Oil Spills Affect Mangroves

The Sea Grant Oil Spill Outreach Team released a publication that discusses various ways that oil exposure can impact mangroves, which have partially submerged root systems that make them especially sensitive to contaminants. Mangroves are widely distributed along Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea coastlines, and they provide important ecosystem services such as protecting shorelines, improving water quality, and providing shelter to fish and shellfish.

Read Impacts of Oil on Mangroves to learn about four types of impacts that mangroves may experience depending on how oil accumulates along shorelines. Also included are ways to protect mangroves, what history tells us about mangrove recovery, and issues related to restoration of damaged mangroves.

Read these Sea Grant publications related to how oil spills affect coastal areas: Birds of a Feather: Coping with Oil , Oysters and Oil Spills, and Navigating Shifting Sands: Oil on our Beaches.

Read these summaries of studies related to oil spill impacts on marshes:

The Sea Grant Oil Spill Outreach Team synthesizes peer-reviewed science for a broad range of general audiences, particularly those who live and work across the Gulf Coast. Sea Grant offers oil-spill related public seminars across the United States.

Information about upcoming Sea Grant science seminars and recently-held events is available here. To receive email updates about seminars, publications, and the outreach team, click here.

By Nilde Maggie Dannreuther. Contact maggied@ngi.msstate.edu with questions or comments.

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GoMRI and the Sea Grant programs of the Gulf of Mexico (Florida, Mississippi-Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas) have partnered to create an oil spill science outreach program.

The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) is a 10-year independent research program established to study the effect, and the potential associated impact, of hydrocarbon releases on the environment and public health, as well as to develop improved spill mitigation, oil detection, characterization and remediation technologies. An independent and academic 20-member Research Board makes the funding and research direction decisions to ensure the intellectual quality, effectiveness and academic independence of the GoMRI research. All research data, findings and publications will be made publicly available. The program was established through a $500 million financial commitment from BP. For more information, visit http://gulfresearchinitiative.org/.

© Copyright 2010- 2020 Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) – All Rights Reserved. Redistribution is encouraged with acknowledgement to the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI). Please credit images and/or videos as done in each article. Questions? Contact web-content editor Nilde “Maggie” Dannreuther, Northern Gulf Institute, Mississippi State University (maggied@ngi.msstate.edu).

Grad Student Rayle Examines Changing Meiofauna Biodiversity in Oiled Marshes Using Bioinformatics

6620a — Patrick Rayle, a master’s student at Louisiana State University AgCenter, sets up a sample transect at a marsh site that has not experienced shearing. (Photo by Claudia Husseneder)

Shearing typically occurs along coastal marshes when strong storms rip away the plants at the marsh edge. Because oiled shoreline sediment is in a weakened state and less able to securely hold plants in place, some Louisiana marshes that were heavily oiled following Deepwater Horizon are experiencing more shearing than usual. The loss of vegetation adversely affects the entire marsh ecosystem.

Patrick Rayle uses metabarcoding methods to examine differences in meiofauna biodiversity in oiled and unoiled Louisiana marshes that have experienced shearing. His research can help us better understand how meiofauna communities respond to these co-occurring stressors. He also wants to help answer questions about whether losing the marsh edges through erosion will diminish the diversity of this unique intertidal ecosystem.

Patrick is a master’s student with the Louisiana State University AgCenter’s Department of Entomology and a GoMRI Scholar with the project A Study of Horse Fly (Tabanidae) Populations and Their Food Web Dynamics as Indicators of the Effects of Environmental Stress on Coastal Marsh Health.

His Path

6620b — Patrick Rayle (left), a master’s student at Louisiana State University AgCenter, takes GPS coordinates as research associate Erin Stevens (right) sets up sample transect marker poles at a marsh site that experienced shearing. (Photo by: Claudia Husseneder)

Patrick’s father is a biologist for a Louisiana environmental consulting firm, which made biology a common dinner table topic that Patrick really enjoyed growing up. Later, while completing a marine-focused biological sciences undergraduate degree at Louisiana State University, Patrick worked with Dr. Ken Brown, a Coastal Waters Consortium team member investigating how Deepwater Horizon oiling affected marsh microbial communities. Afterwards, he eagerly accepted a graduate research position with Dr. Lane Foil and Dr. Claudia Husseneder, who were also investigating Deepwater Horizon impacts on Louisiana marshes.

“I’ve lived my entire life just outside of New Orleans, and the various disasters that the community experienced over the years had a large impact on my life,” said Patrick. “When the oil spill hit, it was extremely frustrating that, as a teenager, there really wasn’t much I could do about it. Working on this research examining long-term effects of the spill has been cathartic for me – it feels like I can make a difference in the response the next time something like this happens.”

His Work

6620c — A close-up of a marsh edge suffering plant loss due to oiling. (Photo by: Claudia Husseneder)

Patrick collects soil samples from six Barataria Bay marsh sites using a Barrett soil coring device equipped with replaceable acrylic cores for extracting large, consistently-sized soil samples with minimal cross-contamination risks. He collects five samples at each site from increasing elevations that are .05m apart. Then, he extracts DNA from the samples and uses polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify the short eukaryotic 18S region of the DNA and capture DNA sequences for the microscopic meiofauna living in the soil.

Patrick applies Illumina Hi-seq DNA sequencing techniques to the amplified region to reveal the exact sequence of each organism in the sample. Using bioinformatics algorithms, he matches the regions with previously identified and sequenced species available in a public DNA database. This process generates a table of all the species matched to the collected organisms, which Patrick uses to examine biodiversity differences between healthy and sheared sites that experienced oiling.

6620d — The marsh work group returns after a long day of field work. (L-R) Research assistant Mike Becker and master’s students Patrick Rayle and Ben Aker. (Photo by Claudia Husseneder)

Patrick’s early results show that sheared sites exhibited lower biodiversity than intact sites, which he hypothesizes may have been caused by plant loss associated with oiling. He is conducting a similar study examining biodiversity differences between sites that experience different salinity conditions. “I want to focus on salinity as well, because of the proposed mid-Barataria Bay freshwater diversions,” he explained. “These diversions are intended to help rebuild Louisiana marshes by reconnecting them to the Mississippi River’s sediment input. However, they will have a wide variety of effects on the marshes simply by changing the salinity regime. I want to determine what changes in meiofauna biodiversity are likely to happen in marsh areas with changing salinity.”

His Learning

Patrick is grateful to Drs. Foil and Husseneder for their mentorship, which improved important skills for his future scientific career. He recalls that Dr. Foil hosted a writing course to hone his writing skills for academic journals and that Dr. Husseneder patiently shared her extensive genetics knowledge with him. They also encouraged Patrick to attend the Second Benthic Invertebrate Taxonomy, Metagenomics, and Bioinformatics (BITMaB-2) Workshop, which gave him a solid foundation to conduct analyses using specialized bioinformatics programs.

“To me, GoMRI is about learning from and mitigating a major environmental disaster,” said Patrick. “The Deepwater Horizon spill is too large of an issue to be solved by any one researcher, but collectively we can make new discoveries that can aid in the recovery and prevention of issues like this in the future.”

Patrick also realized that his early research experiences helped him as a graduate student. “There are numerous opportunities available to students at the undergraduate level, but you have to look for them,” he said. “Many citizen science programs can give you a better idea of what type of work is required to do research.”

Moving forward, Patrick wants to pursue an environmental science position in industry or government.

Praise for Patrick

Drs. Foil and Husseneder praised Patrick’s adaptability in difficult conditions, saying that he applied his Eagle Scout skills and values to many aspects of the research. “He confidently navigated the Gulf of Mexico estuary, trekked through muddy marshes in all weather conditions, fought through the jungle of bioinformatics, and showed great perseverance in his endeavors,” said Dr. Husseneder. “Patrick is on his way to becoming a well-rounded biologist, i.e., not afraid to tackle mucky field work, big data, and computer command lines.”

Dr. Husseneder said that Patrick’s work is an example of the collaborative nature of the GoMRI program since his research is integrally linked with his fellow graduate students’ projects. “Data from Patrick’s study dovetail with projects of former GoMRI scholars, including food web studies on horse flies (Devika Bhalerao), marsh insects (Ben Aker), and sea side sparrows (Allison Snider).”

The GoMRI community embraces bright and dedicated students like Patrick Rayle and their important contributions. The GoMRI Scholars Program recognizes graduate students whose work focuses on GoMRI-funded projects and builds community for the next generation of ocean science professionals.

By Stephanie Ellis and Nilde Maggie Dannreuther. Contact sellis@ngi.msstate.edu for questions or comments.

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The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) is a 10-year independent research program established to study the effect, and the potential associated impact, of hydrocarbon releases on the environment and public health, as well as to develop improved spill mitigation, oil detection, characterization and remediation technologies. An independent and academic 20-member Research Board makes the funding and research direction decisions to ensure the intellectual quality, effectiveness and academic independence of the GoMRI research. All research data, findings and publications will be made publicly available. The program was established through a $500 million financial commitment from BP. For more information, visit https://gulfresearchinitiative.org/.

© Copyright 2010-2019 Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) – All Rights Reserved. Redistribution is encouraged with acknowledgement to the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI). Please credit images and/or videos as done in each article. Questions? Contact web-content editor Nilde “Maggie” Dannreuther, Northern Gulf Institute, Mississippi State University (maggied@ngi.msstate.edu).

Grad Student Aker Counts on Insects to Assess Marsh Health

6559a — Ben Aker collects insects in Louisiana marshes using a sweep net. (Photo credit: Claudia Husseneder)

Estuarine marshes in coastal Louisiana face numerous threats such as sea-level rise, salt water intrusion, and contamination threats such as oil spills that can lead to marsh loss and changing habitats. Ben Aker collects insects from different habitats within coastal marshes and assesses their abundance and biodiversity. His research will help identify potential marsh health indicator species and generate baseline data for future research into marsh loss and habitat restoration efforts.

Ben is a master’s student with the Louisiana State University AgCenter’s Department of Entomology and a GoMRI Scholar with the project A study of horse fly (Tabanidae) populations and their food web dynamics as indicators of the effects of environmental stress on coastal marsh health.

His Path

6559b — (L-R) Master’s students Darrius Davis and Ben Aker, Ph.D. student Mike Becker, research associate Erin Stevens, master’s student Patrick Rayle, and worker Julian Lucero travel to Louisiana marshes for insect collection. (Photo credit: Claudia Husseneder)

Ben’s interest in science was fueled by the passionate professors he met as a biology undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater. “I’ve never talked to a professor who wasn’t enthusiastic about their research, and I want to have a similar level of excitement about my work,” he said. Ben pursued a degree in ecology, evolution, and animal behavior and conducted undergraduate research on the distribution of predatory robber flies. He is continuing entomology research as a Louisiana State University master’s student studying coastal insects and their salinity-related distributions with Dr. Lane Foil and Dr. Claudia Husseneder’s coastal insect ecology team, which studies Deepwater Horizon impacts on Louisiana marshes.

“I want to use interesting organisms to help answer important ecological questions,” said Ben. “Our research seeks to highlight the importance of coastal insects and their potential use as tools for marsh conservation and ecological research.”

His Work

6559c — Ben Aker dries out his boot after falling through a hole in the marsh while sweep netting. (Photo credit: Claudia Husseneder)

Ben’s research examines plant and insect biodiversity along salinity gradients using data collected during a year-long study (July 2018 – June 2019). He focuses on 18 Louisiana marsh sites in Barataria Bay and Caillou Bay designated as either low-, mid-, or high-salinity based on historical data. Using sweep nets, he collects insects monthly and identifies each insect to the family level. He also assesses average ground cover, dominant plant life, and biodiversity differences between salinity levels at all sites. He then uses the EstimateS biodiversity software to determine biodiversity in areas with different salinities and creates a rarefaction curve for each salinity level. Rarefaction curves plot the number of families observed in relation to the sample size and the estimated total families to determine if a sampling effort can sufficiently assess diversity.

Preliminary results from data collected during the first five months show that each salinity level had differences in overall plant composition, but Spartina cordgrass species consistently dominated ground cover (Spartina patens at low- and mid-salinity sites and Spartina alterniflora at high-salinity sites). Chironomids (non-biting midges) were the most abundant insect family at low-salinity sites but were replaced by Delphacids (plant hoppers) as salinity increased. Results from the insect biodiversity indices suggest that family-level biodiversity decreased with increasing salinity. Further sampling is required to adequately assess insect diversity, which will come as Ben processes the remaining data. “Overall, we captured a conservative estimate of approximately 89.3 – 99.3% of families present,” explained Ben. “This high percentage of families collected is expected to increase as we complete a full year of sampling.”

6559d — A black-headed melyrid (Collops nigriceps) from the Melyridae family, one of the many insect families Ben Aker identified during his marsh research. (Photo credit: Nathan Lord)

Ben utilizes his research findings to identify potential bioindicators of marsh health. He observed that most insect families appeared at all salinity levels and that only rare species were unique to a single salinity level. Since rare species are inefficient bioindicators, he instead uses a specificity measure (how well the potential bioindicator predicts the salinity level) and a fidelity measure (how likely it is that the potential bioindicator will be encountered at that salinity level) to associate insect families with different salinities. So far, he has associated fifteen insect families among the different salinity levels and combinations of salinity levels.

“It is likely that these insect families are associated with [certain] salinities due to life cycle requirements or herbivory of specific plants,” said Ben. “For example, two families associated with low-salinity sites (Chironomidae and Coenagrionidae) have aquatic juveniles to which higher salinity levels may be detrimental, and a family associated with high-salinity sites (Blissidae) is represented in our collection by a single species that feeds primarily on Spartina alterniflora.”

Ben is currently identifying members of the associated bioindicator families to the species level. He and Co-Principal Investigator Dr. Claudia Husseneder will conduct DNA barcoding on key species within indicator families, which will allow students or researchers with minimal taxonomic training to easily identify important insects for future coastal studies. The insect inventory generated by Ben’s research also provides comparative baseline data that researchers can use to observe how insect communities change following stress-induced marsh loss or following marsh recovery resulting from habitat management.

His Learning

Dr. Foil’s multidisciplinary background showed Ben that being well-read across multiple fields could help him contextualize his research in the greater picture. He put this concept into practice at the annual Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science (GoMOSES) conference, which facilitates interdisciplinary and cross-institutional collaboration. “The most important aspect of the GoMRI science community to me is the ability to interact and cooperate with other GoMRI associated labs,” Ben said. “Following the 2018 GoMOSES conference, I participated in a Seaside Sparrow workshop with the Taylor and Stouffer labs from Louisiana State University’s School of Renewable Natural Resources (see Smithsonian Highlights CWC Research on Seaside Sparrows). Because they focus on the Seaside Sparrow diet, I am providing a DNA barcode database of salt marsh insects to compare their samples against.”

His Future

Ben plans to pursue a Ph.D. and continue his insect and ecology-related education. He advises students considering a scientific career to take statistics and scientific writing courses when they are available, “It’s easy to focus just on the research occurring in your specific field and overlook the importance of study design and being able to communicate your results.”

Praise for Ben

Dr. Foil praised Ben’s ability to adapt to challenging work conditions. He explained that Ben did as the locals do to handle the brutal heat and harsh conditions (hats, sunscreen, hydration, seeking shade) during two-day biweekly boat trips to collection sites, implementing two collection strategies, and sorting thousands of insects. While baseline animal population data prior to Deepwater Horizon was severely lacking, Dr. Foil said that Ben and his fellow graduate students are addressing these gaps using various techniques that mix DNA sequencing with classic taxonomy. “Saltwater intrusion and fresh water diversions are inevitable in the changing coastal habitats,” said Dr. Foil. “Hopefully, Ben will provide valuable data for use in evaluating these effects on biological communities.”

The GoMRI community embraces bright and dedicated students like Ben Aker and their important contributions. The GoMRI Scholars Program recognizes graduate students whose work focuses on GoMRI-funded projects and builds community for the next generation of ocean science professionals.

By Stephanie Ellis and Nilde Maggie Dannreuther. Contact sellis@ngi.msstate.edu for questions or comments.

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Fact Sheets (Grade 6-8): “Notes from the Field” Young Scientist Newsletter

Notes from the Field is an educational newsletter created for middle school students that focuses on issues relevant to coastal communities in southeast Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico. Exploring topics ranging from periwinkle snails to tropical storms to coastal erosion, each issue includes educational hands-on activities, puzzles, term glossaries, interviews with scientists, and scientific research.

Click the newsletter covers below to download the PDF!

Marsh Periwinkles (Jan 2016)

Marsh Erosion (March 2017)

Migratory Birds (May 2017)

Tropical Cyclones (Aug 2017)

Saltmarsh Food Webs (Dec 2017)

Indicator Species (July 2018)

Gulf Hypoxia (October 2018)

New Sea Grant Publication on Oysters and Oil Spills

The Sea Grant Oil Spill Outreach Team released a publication about how oysters, which play a critical role in a healthy coastal wetland, fare when faced with oil exposure. The outreach publication also discusses how the Deepwater Horizon incident and subsequent response efforts affected oysters, a vital part of Louisiana’s seafood industry which is the nation’s second-largest seafood supplier.

Read Oysters and Oil Spills to learn about how oysters and oyster reefs respond to extreme natural and manmade events. The publication also highlights oyster restoration projects.

Read other Sea Grant Fact Sheets and Outreach Publications on oil spill science.
Read more about research findings for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

By Nilde Maggie Dannreuther. Contact maggied@ngi.msstate.edu with questions or comments.

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Information about upcoming Sea Grant science seminars and recently-held events is available here. To receive email updates about seminars, publications, and the outreach team, click here.

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GoMRI and the Sea Grant programs of the Gulf of Mexico (Florida, Mississippi-Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas) have partnered to create an oil spill science outreach program.

© Copyright 2010- 2018 Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) – All Rights Reserved. Redistribution is encouraged with acknowledgement to the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI). Please credit images and/or videos as done in each article. Questions? Contact web-content editor Nilde “Maggie” Dannreuther, Northern Gulf Institute, Mississippi State University (maggied@ngi.msstate.edu).

Grad Student Seeley Investigates the Longevity of Toxic Oil Compounds in Coastal Environments

6396a — Meredith Evans Seeley and Dr. Hernando Bacosa maintain the Py-GC-MS machine. (Provided by Meredith Evans)

Oil is a complex mixture of chemicals with different degradation behaviors and toxicity levels. Understanding how the compounds in spilled oil, particularly toxic compounds, change with weathering is important to predicting oil’s persistence in the environment. Meredith Evans Seeley analyzed how oil compounds are preserved or removed over time in coastal systems that have different hydrographic activity levels. Her research will help determine which coastal environments are more likely to retain toxic compounds and require more attention from responders.

Meredith was a master’s student with The University of Texas at Austin’s Marine Science Institute and a GoMRI Scholar with the Dispersion Research on Oil: Physics and Plankton Studies (DROPPS I & II) consortium.

Her Path

6396b — An oil slick near one of Meredith’s sampling sites in Grand Isle, Louisiana. (Photo by Brad E. Rosenheim)

Meredith grew up on the Texas Gulf Coast and loved learning how different systems work in her science classes. She discovered an interest in marine science during a scuba diving trip with her older brother. The ocean and coral reefs they visited were unlike anything she had ever seen, and she wanted to learn everything about the marine world.

As an undergraduate at the University of Oklahoma, Meredith worked in a lab investigating invasive aquatic species and was able to travel the country conducting coastal restoration projects. After completing a biology bachelor’s degree, she knew she wanted to study threats to ocean health, so she applied for and entered the master’s program in marine science at the University of Texas at Austin. There, she worked in Dr. Zhanfei Liu’s lab researching Deepwater Horizon oil’s chemical evolution in coastal Louisiana for the DROPPS consortium.

6396c — Meredith Evans Seeley presents her research at the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation’s 2015 conference. (Provided by Meredith Evans Seeley)

“I’ve always been most motivated by what makes logical sense to me. The oceans play a critical role in the functionality of our climate, so logically we should preserve the integrity of the oceans as best we can,” said Meredith. “Truthfully, though, I am also a very empathetic person. When I see that species and ecosystems are at risk, I really sympathize and want to help fix the problem. These fit together to make me keenly interested in understanding threats such as oil spills and protecting the Gulf for future generations.”

Her Work

Meredith initially focused on the weathering of petroleum hydrocarbons in oil-soaked sand patties, tar, and oil sheens collected from three different coastal environments: a high-energy beach front, a low-energy sandy inlet, and a very-low-energy back-barrier marsh. She measured the concentrations of individual oil compounds, including n-alkanes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and alkylated PAHs, in samples using gas chromatography (GC).

6396d — Meredith Evans Seeley accepts the James D. Watkins Award for research excellence at the 2015 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science conference. (Provided by Meredith Evans Seeley)

She observed that the magnitude of hydrocarbon depletion was most influenced by the environment’s hydrographic activity, with high-energy environments exhibiting significantly higher hydrocarbon depletion than lower-energy environments. The very-low-energy marsh environment consistently exhibited high concentrations of the same chemicals that experienced depletion in other environments over time, suggesting that oil compounds from sources other than the Deepwater Horizon incident accumulated into patties, tars, and sediments. Her results suggest that oil chemicals may be preserved for longer time periods in low-energy marsh environments than in high-energy environments, potentially threatening marine organisms and coastal ecosystem health.

“This research can be used to prioritize the type of shorelines we protect in future oil spills based on how likely they are to retain toxic compounds over time,” said Meredith. “However, it is important to recognize that petroleum is a very complex mixture, and traditional analysis techniques can identify only about 25% of compounds in Deepwater Horizon crude oil.”

6396e — Meredith Evans Seeley talks to a local news company about the DROPPS research at UTMSI. (Provided by Meredith Evans Seeley)

Meredith turned her focus to utilizing a unique analysis technique called ramped pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS) to improve traditional hydrocarbon analysis. Py-GC-MS uses high-temperature pyrolysis to extract compounds within different temperature ranges from samples right before GC analysis without any sample preparation. “With this technique, we can achieve the same traditional analysis results while also gaining insight into high-molecular-weight or polar compounds that are difficult to identify,” she said. “In particular, we can use the oxygen output in the high-temperature zone (>370 °C) to estimate concentrations of oxygenated hydrocarbons, which previous studies suggest might be more bioavailable to marine species.”

Her Learning

Dr. Liu taught Meredith many scientific principles, but she was most influenced by his belief that one must always address “what’s new?” and formulate research questions to yield results that add something to the scientific community. Networking with other researchers at conferences and annual GoMRI meetings pushed Meredith to think about her research in new ways to present her work effectively. “Conferences motivated me to talk with scientists outside of my usual circle so that I could broaden my research goals and ideas through collaboration,” she said. “These connections and experiences, as well as learning under Dr. Liu, afforded me many benefits that I still reap today.”

Her Future

6396f — Meredith Evans Seeley and her advisor Zhanfei Liu at her master’s defense reception. (Provided by Meredith Evans Seeley)

Meredith is currently a Ph.D. student at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science researching microplastic pollution. During her DROPPS research, she became curious about using Py-GC-MS to study microplastic polymers and found that there are many similarities between plastic and petroleum pollutants, including complex environmental fates.

She says it is important for students who are pursuing science not to be shy. Rather than feeling intimidated or being afraid to ask questions, she found that the best way to learn and grow as a scientist is to ask about potential opportunities. “The scientific community is the most supportive working environment I could imagine. Don’t be too timid to make those connections by asking to collaborate or just asking for help,” she said. “If you try to get involved with research that excites you, I guarantee someone will help you get there.”

Praise for Meredith

Dr. Liu described Meredith as one of the top graduate students he has ever worked with and praised her organization, communication, and research skills. Liu highlighted Meredith’s ability to communicate complicated data in simple language, which he finds to be a rare skill among early-stage graduate students. He believes these skills contributed to her winning the James D. Watkins Award for Excellence in Research during the 2016 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science conference and her invitation to present a GoMRI webinar the same year.

6396g — The Liu research group celebrates Dr. Liu’s tenure at a local restaurant. (L-R, top) Nick Reyna, Hernando Bacosa, Jason Jenkins, Jiqing Liu, and Kaijun Liu. (L-R, bottom) Shuting Liu, Zhanfei Liu, and Meredith Evans Seeley. (Provided by Meredith Evans Seeley)

Liu said Meredith made significant contributions to the university’s broader community impacts when she worked with a K-12 program at Port Aransas Elementary School. He also praised her work as a summer teaching assistant, noting that she organized his course’s entire lab component. “In her teaching experience, Meredith demonstrated superb skills in organization and great attention to detail, he said. “She clearly is one of the top TAs I have ever seen, and without her excellent work I would not have been able to do it!”

The GoMRI community embraces bright and dedicated students like Meredith Evans Seeley and their important contributions. The GoMRI Scholars Program recognizes graduate students whose work focuses on GoMRI-funded projects and builds community for the next generation of ocean science professionals. Visit the DROPPS website to learn more about their work.

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© Copyright 2010-2018 Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) – All Rights Reserved. Redistribution is encouraged with acknowledgement to the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI). Please credit images and/or videos as done in each article. Questions? Contact web-content editor Nilde “Maggie” Dannreuther, Northern Gulf Institute, Mississippi State University (maggied@ngi.msstate.edu).

Grad Student Flournoy Emphasizes the Importance of Student Exposure to STEM

6303a — Nikaela Flournoy. (Provided by NIkaela Flournoy)

Nikaela Flournoy’s scientific journey has always carried a societal tie, from her passion for research’s social relevance to her realizations about the relationship between society and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). Though she is excited to see a greater emphasis on STEM in primary and secondary education, she hopes to help expand STEM awareness and curriculum to students from diverse educational and social backgrounds.

Nikaela recently completed her doctoral studies in the University of Alabama’s Department of Biological Sciences and was honored as a GoMRI Scholar with the Alabama Center for Ecological Resilience (ACER). She continues her ACER research as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Alabama.

Her Path

6303b — Nikaela working with Dr. Behzad Mortazavi’s lab group at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. (Provided by NIkaela Flournoy)

Nikaela learned about the possibilities of scientific research as an undergraduate student at Alabama A&M University. Her high school curriculum included standard science courses but they did not highlight the diverse opportunities a scientific career could hold. “I knew scientific research existed before I attended Alabama A&M, but I didn’t know the scope of it until I was offered the opportunity to work in a research lab,” said Nikaela. She worked as an undergraduate research assistant while completing her biology degree and completed a master’s degree in microbiology at the University of Iowa with a focus on virology.

Nikaela’s educational background provided her with different perspectives in the sciences. While her biology research fostered an interest in environmental microbiology, her virology research generated an awareness about public health and the societal relevance of scientific research. When the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred, Nikaela was still unsure if she wanted to continue her scientific education through a doctoral program. However, the images of the oil as it entered the coastal environment and the expectation of downstream economic impacts inspired her to search for research opportunities where she could use her skillsets for the greater good. “Seeing the graphic imagery within the northern Gulf of Mexico inspired me to pursue research that would utilize my prior skillsets to investigate the interface between the environment and public health,” she said. In 2011, she joined Dr. Patricia Sobecky’s research investigating the long-term effects of Deepwater Horizon on the Alabama coastline, a collaboration with Dr. Behzad Mortazavi’s nitrogen cycling lab at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL). Their work became part of the ACER project in 2015.

Her Work

6303c — Nikaela presenting ACER-related research at the 2016 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science Conference in Tampa, FL. (Provided by NIkaela Flournoy)

Coastal saltmarshes help remove anthropogenic nitrogen from the coastal ecosystem through processes such as denitrification, a microbial process that reduces nitrate in saltmarsh sediments by releasing it into the atmosphere as nitrogen gas. Large-scale contamination events such as oil spills can potentially cause losses in saltmarsh vegetation, impairing the marsh’s ability to remove nitrogen. Nikaela analyzes DNA in samples from Deepwater Horizon-impacted subtidal and vegetated saltmarshes to understand resident microbes’ presumed contributions to nitrogen removal and its effects on microbial diversity.

Nikaela extracts DNA from sediment samples collected from the Chandeleur Islands five years after it was heavily oiled during Deepwater Horizon and analyzes it using next-generation Illumina sequencing. She applies bioinformatic approaches to determine which bacteria are present and assesses their genetic potential to remove nitrogen. She then compares and contrasts those metrics between saltmarsh conditions to observe how loss of vegetation might impact the marsh’s denitrification potential. So far, Nikaela and her collaborators observed that the average denitrification capacity of vegetated marshes was four-times higher than unvegetated marshes. Denitrifying microbes were equally abundant in both types of marsh, suggesting that vegetation regulates the denitrifiers’ activity rather than their abundance.

Her Learning

6303d — The ACER group, 2016. (Photo credit: ACER)

Nikaela’s experiences working with Dr. Sobecky have provided her opportunities to experience many aspects of microbial ecology as it relates to innovation, engagement, and advocacy efforts for women in STEM. She believes that her sharpened drive is a reflection of Sobecky’s own enthusiasm and passion for their research. “Dr. Sobecky always emphasizes the importance of reading older literature, as it contains much of the foundational theory that most metagenomic principles are based on today,” Nikaela said. “She is a consistent source of resources, mentorship, and encouragement, which are critical traits for a graduate advisor. It’s important that young scientists like myself have mentors like Dr. Sobecky who encourage us to be resilient in our research pursuits.”

One of Nikaela’s most memorable moments during her Ph.D. experience was attending the Women of Color STEM Entrepreneurship Conference hosted by the National STEM Collaborative, a consortium focused on supporting minority girls and women in STEM. Sobecky’s involvement with the Collaborative connected Nikaela with the conference and offered her a unique experience that she believes she couldn’t have found anywhere else. “Never before had I been around so many minority women with advanced STEM degrees and careers in one space,” she said. “The outpouring of encouragement from women in all aspects of STEM was amazing.”

Her Future

Nikaela currently works as a post-doctoral researcher in Sobecky’s lab and hopes to eventually work in an administrative position at a historically black college or university (HBCU) and give back to the community that introduced her to research. “I got my start at an HBCU. I feel like it’s my responsibility as a research scientist and educator to teach at an HBCU and provide the next-generation of research scientists with the same opportunities that I had and more,” she said.

Praise for Nikaela

Sobecky described Nikaela as a scientist who shows the strength, perseverance, and work ethic that advisors always hope to see develop in the students and postdocs they mentor. She praised Nikaela for always seeking to learn and bring new knowledge to her research projects. Nikaela’s drive to share science with others and invest in other upcoming scientists particularly stood out to Sobecky, who said “She is dedicated to paying it forward and helping others learn more about STEM and to helping them develop professionally. Nikaela embodies the consummate scientist and science educator that our nation needs to help solve societal issues.”

The GoMRI community embraces bright and dedicated students like Nikaela Flournoy and their important contributions. The GoMRI Scholars Program recognizes graduate students whose work focuses on GoMRI-funded projects and builds community for the next generation of ocean science professionals. Visit the ACER website to learn more about their work.

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© Copyright 2010-2018 Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) – All Rights Reserved. Redistribution is encouraged with acknowledgement to the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI). Please credit images and/or videos as done in each article. Questions? Contact web-content editor Nilde “Maggie” Dannreuther, Northern Gulf Institute, Mississippi State University (maggied@ngi.msstate.edu).

Grad Student Ziegler Compares Gulf and East Coast Ecosystems for Predicting Saltmarsh Food Web Responses to Disturbances

6284a — Shelby counting Spartina alterniflora shoot density and measuring shoot heights during a marsh habitat survey. (Photo credit: Lauren Clance)

Major disturbances such as oil spills can significantly affect populations of vulnerable saltmarsh species, which may result in greater impacts to the overall saltmarsh food web. Shelby Ziegler believes that a better understanding of what saltmarsh predator-prey interactions look like today can help identify changes in the food web following disturbances in the future.

“If we see a big die-off of a certain species after a major perturbation, we need to know what implications that will have moving up or down the food web,” said Shelby. “This research is vital for future generations to better understand and maintain saltmarsh populations and prepare for the effects of events like oil spills.” Shelby is an ecology Ph.D. student with the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and a GoMRI Scholar with the Coastal Waters Consortium II (CWC II).

Her Path

Shelby became fascinated with biology after dissecting fish and marine animals during a high school marine science class. She knew that when she went to college, she wanted to follow a path that would allow her to go out into the field and work directly with the marine life. During her sophomore year at the College of William and Mary, she conducted undergraduate research in Maine and Washington state that explored how different environmental conditions can potentially affect how communities work, fostering her interest in scientific research.

6284b — Shelby sets a fyke net while the marsh is flooded to capture fishes and crustaceans as the tide recedes. (Photo credit: Mary Lide Parker, UNC Research)

After completing her undergraduate degree, Shelby worked at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science on the Zostera Experimental Network (ZEN), a large global seagrass network. While investigating seagrass systems across the Northern Hemisphere, she realized that important, seemingly similar coastal habitats can have different functions for marine communities. Shelby accepted a graduate position in Dr. Joel Fodrie’s ecology lab at the University of North Carolina investigating how the Deepwater Horizon oil spill affected the coastal saltmarsh food web with CWC. “There’s a common phrase in North Carolina – no wetlands, no seafood,” said Shelby. “The United States is continuously losing its wetlands – over a football field of marsh per day in Louisiana alone. I want to know what that means for our communities and fisheries economy. It’s a huge question that could take a whole career to understand, but I’m hoping my research can provide a little bit of insight.”

Her Work

6284c — Shelby prepares a gill net, which are used to capture transient fishes that use the marsh to forage. (Photo credit: Mary Lide Parker, UNC Research)

Saltmarshes on the Gulf Coast and East Coast are similar in that they are dominated by Spartina alterniflora and its associated fish and invertebrate communities. Shelby collects and reviews Gulf Coast and East Coast saltmarsh baseline data to help construct an ecosystem model that can depict how the removal of different species by a disaster may affect the marsh food web. “The Gulf of Mexico and East Coast have very similar ecosystems but function in very different ways,” she said. “It’s vital to understand how these systems work in general before we can understand how contamination like the oil spill affected the ecosystem or the community.”

The first phase of Shelby’s research examined saltmarsh predator-prey interactions and how they differed between the Gulf and East coasts. She conducted predation assays comparing (1) oiled and unoiled Louisiana sites and (2) oiled and unoiled Louisiana sites and East Coast sites. She collected periwinkle snails from the marsh, tied them to a tether (similar to a fishing rod), and placed them in the marsh overnight for 24 hours. She then counted how many snails were eaten during that time period. This experiment found no differences between oiled and unoiled Louisiana sites (suggesting food web recovery in oiled sites), but showed significant differences between the Gulf Coast and East Coast. “There are a lot of different mechanisms that could potentially drive the differences observed between the Gulf and East Coasts,” explained Shelby. “Those findings led me to focus on not only single predator-prey interactions but also overall food web dynamics and how they differ between the East Coast and Louisiana.”

6284d — Shelby sets a gill net at dusk along the marsh edge. (Photo credit: Mary Lide Parker, UNC Research)

Shelby’s current research examines the diets of fish living in East Coast and Gulf Coast ecosystems. She reviews and analyzes previously published Gulf of Mexico and East Coast literature to determine baseline food web data. Her literature synthesis indicates that key marsh taxa, such as killifish and fiddler crabs, appear absent in the diets of transient Gulf Coast fish but are found regularly in the diets of the same fish species on the East Coast. Depth marsh flooding caused by tidal inundation may influence these species’ interactions across different regions and, if so, there could be an alternative trophic pathway in the Gulf that affects the amount of energy transient fish obtain from the marsh habitat.

She will combine her current findings with gut and tissue analyses conducted by other CWC researchers to construct an ecosystem model reflecting the baseline dynamics of the saltmarsh food web. They hope future researchers can compare gut contents harvested from saltmarsh organisms following a disturbance with their model and interpret observed dietary shifts to determine which species the disturbance most affected.

Her Learning

Shelby’s work with Dr. Fodrie showed her that asking thoughtful questions is key to conducting solid research. Rather than simply thinking up a research question, Fodrie encouraged her to observe the system being researched and identify the important questions based on what she sees.

6284e — Research technician Lauren Clance prepares to set minnow traps in the marsh. Shelby and her colleagues use minnow traps to capture smaller organisms, such as killifish, that directly utilize the marsh platform when the marsh is flooded. (Photo credit: Mary Lide Parker, UNC Research)

Working with CWC allowed Shelby to interact with established scientists from other fields. She believes she gained a little mentorship from each researcher, which she incorporates into her own research and scientific journey. The collaborative effort also taught her the importance of maintaining a balance between supporting the work of others in your project and making sure your own research gets done. During her first semester as a graduate student, Shelby traveled to Louisiana alone to participate in a sampling effort. “I came down not knowing anyone and was integrated into this large group of scientists who all had their own priorities and were trying to get a ton of sampling done in one week,” she said. “I learned that you have to make sure your own voice is heard as a graduate student and stand up for yourself, because your work is just as important as the work that everyone else is doing.”

Her Future

Shelby hopes to focus her career on asking and answering interesting questions and use her findings to push habitat conservation and restoration efforts. She encourages future students to make sure that their chosen field is one that they love. She said, “Graduate school is hard enough even when your research is something that you’re excited and care about, so fight for yourself and your research interests. That includes having a healthy work-life balance – the happier you are with your life, the more productive you’ll be when it comes to your work.”

Praise for Shelby

Dr. Fodrie describes Shelby as a team player in both his lab and the overall CWC project. “Shelby is a real self-starter and hard worker,” he said. “In just her first two years, she’s already spent a dissertations’ worth of time in the field sampling marsh fishes day and night.” He explained that her research is revealing important details about the marsh food web. In particular, her comparative field research and synthesis work demonstrate that – unlike many East Coast marshes – marsh platform fishes are absent from the diets of larger transient fishes in the Gulf of Mexico, revealing new insights about how oil exposure impacts may propagate or attenuate across food webs. He explained that Shelby is also uniquely positioned to export what they have learned about Gulf of Mexico ecosystem responses to oiling and inform the current debate about the potential risks of oil exploration along the East Coast.

The GoMRI community embraces bright and dedicated students like Shelby Ziegler and their important contributions. The GoMRI Scholars Program recognizes graduate students whose work focuses on GoMRI-funded projects and builds community for the next generation of ocean science professionals. Visit the CWC website to learn more about their work.

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© Copyright 2010-2018 Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) – All Rights Reserved. Redistribution is encouraged with acknowledgement to the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI). Please credit images and/or videos as done in each article. Questions? Contact web-content editor Nilde “Maggie” Dannreuther, Northern Gulf Institute, Mississippi State University (maggied@ngi.msstate.edu).

Grad Student Snider Examines Seaside Sparrows Diet for Food Web Impacts from Oiling

Allison holds a Seaside Sparrow after a muddy day in the field. (Photo credit: Anna Perez-Umphrey)

Seaside Sparrows live and forage in coastal Gulf of Mexico marshlands, some of which were oiled following the Deepwater Horizon incident. Sparrows in these oiled marshes likely ingested invertebrates that were also exposed to oil. Allison Snider uses DNA analyses to investigate potential long-term changes in the diets of Seaside Sparrows following Deepwater Horizon. She hopes that her findings will provide insight into the resilience of these birds and their environment following a large-scale disturbance such as an oil spill.

Allison is a wildlife biology master’s student with Louisiana State University’s School of Renewable Natural Resources and a GoMRI Scholar with the Coastal Waters Consortium (CWC).

Her Path

Allison’s parents fueled her passion for science by giving her nature field guides, conducting experiments with her in their kitchen, and helping her grow flowers and vegetables. She enjoyed learning about different ecosystems during visits to science museums, zoos, and state parks. When she entered Central Michigan University as a freshman, she found herself torn between her two favorite subjects, English and science. However, exciting fieldwork opportunities and the potential to learn more about the natural world in the science field persuaded her, and she completed a bachelor’s degree in natural resource biology and a minor in museum studies.

Allison wasn’t sure what she wanted to do after graduation until she discovered an open position with Dr. Sabrina Taylor at Louisiana State University. Taylor and her colleague Dr. Phil Stouffer were seeking a graduate student for their CWC project researching the Deepwater Horizon incidents effects on marsh Seaside Sparrows. “I was drawn in by the unique research and how it focuses on the implications of interactions between nature and society,” explained Allison. “It is crucial to learn from our mistakes, and that’s why this is research topic is so important to me – it offers a way to make the best of a bad situation.”

Her Work

Allison checks a Seaside Sparrow after processing, which include measuring the tarsus, wing, and tail, checking for a brood patch or cloacal protuberance, and collecting various types of data. (Photo credit: Anna Perez-Umphrey)

Allison checks a Seaside Sparrow after processing, which includes measuring the tarsus, wing, and tail, checking for a brood patch or cloacal protuberance, and collecting various types of data. (Photo credit: Anna Perez-Umphrey)

Allison studies the diet of Seaside Sparrows to determine if the oil may have altered the saltmarsh food web. Allison extracts DNA from gizzard, fecal, and ligature samples collected from the sparrows during 2011-2017. Then she analyzes them using metabarcoding to target a short DNA region common to many different organisms called the cytochrome C oxidase subunit I or COI. Because the technique uses a common DNA region, she is able to analyze many prey species in a single sample at the same time.

She identifies the COI region of each prey found in a dietary sample and amplifies it to identify small differences in their genetic sequences, which she compares to online sequence databases and identifies the prey’s exact species. Once she completes the DNA analysis and prey identification, Allison will use this information to compare the dietary compositions of birds in oiled and unoiled saltmarshes and identify differences between their long-term dietary habits.

“What is so exciting to me about my research and about the Gulf overall is that I get to dive into this big, complicated system and try to understand the place of a single species in the bigger picture,” said Allison. “I am humbled to study an important system that people all along the Gulf Coast rely on.”

Her Learning

Allison snapped this photo of (front to back) Anna Perez-Umphrey, Megan Hart, and Tyler Williams watching dolphins as they hunted close to shore. (Photo credit: Allison Snider)

Many of Allison’s most memorable moments during her research experience occurred while working in the field. The long days and deep concentration often required for successful fieldwork can be exhausting. However, Allison found that encountering unexpected animals in the marsh and bay helped her see the big picture. She recalled that early one morning, a pod of dolphins began hunting a few meters from the marsh edge just as she and her team members pulled their boat ashore. “The entire crew stood completely still. I turned away from the dolphins for just a moment to see if my friends were watching the frenzy,” recalled Allison. “Seeing the looks of wonder and amazement on their faces was incredible, and I think it really is the heart of why we’re doing the research that we’re doing.”

Allison believes that these types of experiences helped her realize that science is not an isolated practice but something that occurs across academic disciplines for the benefit of all. “No matter our backgrounds, we’re united by a drive to see how we can learn from the Deepwater Horizon disaster and move forward in a constructive way,” she said. “It’s a privilege to work alongside my colleagues and all of the scientists in the GoMRI program.”

Her Future

Allison weighs a Seaside Sparrow nestling. (Photo credit: Allison Snider)

Allison hopes to find a position with a state department where she can apply her research in a policy-focused role. She suggests that students considering a scientific career not worry about following one specific path, as there is no one “right” way to enter a scientific field. “One of the great things about my graduate work has been meeting people with a variety of backgrounds and experiences,” she said. “Don’t compare yourself to others, because everyone has different starting points and end goals. Learn from the diversity, appreciate it, but don’t hold yourself to someone else’s path.”

Praise for Allison

Dr. Taylor described Allison as a gifted writer and bright researcher who brings good ideas and a positive attitude to her research lab. “I’m very much looking forward to seeing the results of her research,” said Taylor. “They will certainly provide a deeper understanding of the effects of the oil spill.”

The GoMRI community embraces bright and dedicated students like Allison and their important contributions. The GoMRI Scholars Program recognizes graduate students whose work focuses on GoMRI-funded projects and builds community for the next generation of ocean science professionals. Visit the CWC website to learn more about their work.

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© Copyright 2010- 2017 Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) – All Rights Reserved. Redistribution is encouraged with acknowledgement to the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI). Please credit images and/or videos as done in each article. Questions? Contact web-content editor Nilde “Maggie” Dannreuther, Northern Gulf Institute, Mississippi State University (maggied@ngi.msstate.edu).

Grad Student Bhalerao Analyzes Food Webs of Horse Fly Larvae to Assess Marsh Health

Devika and Chinmay Tikhe floating tabanid larvae out of marsh sediments. (Photo by Claudia Husseneder)

Greenhead horse fly larvae are the top invertebrate predator in the Spartinamarshes along the Gulf of Mexico coastline. Adult and larval horseflies exhibited reduced genetic variation and population declines in oiled marshes after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which suggests that these organisms could be an indicator species for post-spill marsh health. Devika Bhalerao uses DNA analyses to identify organisms important to the larvae’s survival and determine if oiling alters the presence of various organisms in the food web. Her findings will help develop analytical tools that ecologists can use to evaluate the health of tidal marshes.

Devika is an entomology master’s student at Louisiana State University (LSU) and a GoMRI Scholar with the GoMRI-funded project A Study of Horse Fly (Tabanidae) Populations and Their Food Web Dynamics as Indicators of the Effects of Environmental Stress on Coastal Marsh Health led by Lane Foil and Claudia Husseneder.

Her Path

Devika Bhalerao. (Photo by Claudia Husseneder)

Devika’s love for biology began when her mother taught biology to local children in Devika’s childhood home of India. Devika discovered a more focused interest in molecular biology and genomic research while studying as a microbiology undergraduate student at Pune University in India. She gained more genomics experience through the Pune University microbiology master’s program where she used metagenomics to decode the microbiome of the rural Indian population.

Devika attended a presentation about using metagenomics in insect systems given by Chinmay Tikhe, a Ph.D. student in Dr. Claudia Husseneder’s LSU Agricultural Center lab. She contacted Husseneder to learn more about their project and the use of metagenomics to describe the food web of horsefly larvae in Louisiana marshes. “The prospect of using the latest techniques such as next-generation sequencing and metagenomics bioinformatics to figure out how the marsh ecosystem functioned made me excited about this research,” she said. Devika joined the Husseneder lab in spring 2015 as an entomology master’s student.

Her Work

A greenhead horse fly larva. (Photo by Claudia Husseneder)

Devika analyzes the greenhead horse fly larval food web to identify organisms in marsh soil that are important for sustaining this top invertebrate predator. She extracts DNA from the larvae’s gut contents and the surrounding sediments from oiled and unoiled marshes and multiplies a specific DNA region called the 18SrRNA gene using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification technique. She then applies next-generation sequencing to the 18SrRNA gene and compares the resulting sequences to a gene database to identify the organisms present in the gut contents and sediment. This information helps her analyze which organisms in the marsh soil are important for sustaining the greenhead horse fly larvae.

An adult greenhead horse fly. (Photo by Claudia Husseneder)

Devika’s research has shown that most species that are present in the larvae’s gut contents belong to insect and fungi families. Her next steps will compare food webs from oiled and unoiled areas to identify if any food web components are missing from oiled marshes. She and her colleagues will use the bioindicators that she identifies to develop a cost-efficient and user-friendly PCR tool capable of determining marsh health.

“My research is the first study of an apex invertebrate predator food web in coastal Spartina marshes with the purpose of identifying the food web’s key elements,” said Devika. “Since greenhead horse flies are associated with Spartina marshes spanning from Texas to Nova Scotia, this study could develop techniques that can monitor the health of coastal marshes across the entire eastern United States.”

Her Learning

Working in Husseneder’s lab taught Devika how difficult it can be to collect larvae in the field. The collection process requires the entire team to devote considerable amounts of time, diligence, and patience to processing many buckets of sediment for only a few larvae. She considers attending the 2017 Benthic Invertebrates, Metagenomics, and Bioinformatics (BITMaB) workshop organized by GoMRI researcher Dr. Kelley Thomas to be the greatest advantage she experienced as a member of the GoMRI scientific community. “The workshop was a game changer in my research,” she said. “I could use the techniques I learned at the workshop to conduct the bioinformatics of my study myself. In my pursuit to acquire advanced molecular techniques, learning to use Quantitative Insights into Microbial Ecology (QIIME) techniques was the cherry on the cake.”

Devika standing by her poster at an entomology conference. (Provided by Claudia Husseneder)

Devika has won several awards for her poster and oral presentations, including the 2016 International Congress of Entomology’s Graduate Student Poster Competition award for ecology and population dynamics and a travel award for the LSU Coastal Connections Competition. “The presentation that won me the travel award was extremely challenging, because I had to explain my entire research in three minutes in layman’s terms using only two slides without animation,” she said. She also won the Outstanding Masters Oral Presentation Competition at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Branch of the Entomological Society of America. “This award was memorable because later at an informal meeting one of the judges commended me on my presentation and said that it stood out,” recalls Devika.

Her Future

Devika plans to pursue a Ph.D. program that uses her molecular biology skills. She advises students considering a career in science to find ways to expand their skill sets. “Keep updating your current skill set and acquiring new skills in your field and stay abreast of the latest research in fields besides your own,” she said. “It can open avenues to apply your skill sets in new systems.”

Praise for Devika

Husseneder described Devika as a bright and dedicated student with a knack for figuring things out – a perfect fit for a project handling massive amounts of data and statistics. Even after the BITMaB workshop ended, Devika continued teaching herself how to use the complex statistics associated with environmental metagenomics, which she shares with students from other departments. She also teaches undergraduate students and fellow graduate students how to use DNA sequencing to identify arthropods found in marshes. “Devika is an invaluable part of our team,” said Husseneder.

Devika (middle row, center) and Husseneder (middle row, far right) pose for a group photo with their research team. (Photo by Claudia Husseneder)

The GoMRI community embraces bright and dedicated students like Devika Bhalerao and their important contributions. The GoMRI Scholars Program recognizes graduate students whose work focuses on GoMRI-funded projects and builds community for the next generation of ocean science professionals.

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RFP-V Researcher Dr. Sunshine Van Bael Hosts Workshops for Elementary and Middle School Aged Kids

Dr. Van Bael talks with students during one of her summer workshops. Photo Credit: Sunshine Van Bael

Dr. Sunshine Van Bael, principal investigator of the RFP-V project Chemical Evolution and Plant-Microbe Degradation of Petroleum in Saline Marsh Plants and Soil, and her colleagues recently hosted a series of workshops in Louisiana for nearly 140 elementary and middle school-aged kids. The workshops were part of Dr. Van Bael’s outreach efforts to teach students about the coasts and the challenges facing them due to global changes and oil spills.

Dr. Van Bael’s RFP-V project focuses on bacteria and fungi that live in salt marsh grasses called endophytes (specifically Spartina alterniflora). She is working to understand what happens to these endophytes when they are exposed to oil, including if they play a role in helping degrade it. The project has two components: a field effort to collect samples and analyze them in the lab to improve understanding of the bacteria and fungi and a modeling effort to better predict how endophytes move in water.

The first workshop, called “My Pet Endophyte,” relates to Dr. Van Bael’s RFP-V research. The kids participated in a nature walk where they learned about fungi, bacteria, Spartina, and endophytes. They each collected a leaf or a flower during their walk, which they took back to the lab where they learned to isolate the endophytes and plate them, just like scientists do. They then got to take their “pet” endophyte plate home and watch what happened over the course of a week or two. Check out Dr. Van Bael’s blog post and pictures to find out more.

The second workshop focused on coastal ecology and decision making. The activity is modeled after the state of Louisiana’s Master Plan for Coastal Protection and challenged the students to make their own “Kid Master Plan for Coastal Management.” They were split into groups of three, each acting as either a city planner, an engineer, or a marsh ecologist. The teams had to build their own Mississippi River Delta, including levees, out of Play-Doh, sand, sponges, rocks, and sticks they collected. They also had to decide where to place the city of New Orleans and Grand Isle to protect it in the event of sea level rise, river flooding, and a hurricane. Throughout each of the three challenges, the kids, acting in their roles as city planner, engineer, or marsh ecologist, discussed what they saw happening to their cities and how they might adjust their designs to protect them. In the end, the winning team was selected by one of the students acting as the governor. The curriculum for this workshop was developed by Dr. Van Bael, Dr. Emily Farrer, Dr. Kim Mighell, and Emma Tower. Contact Dr. Van Bael if you would like a copy of the activity.

Dr. Van Bael and her colleagues host similar workshops for elementary and middle school-aged kids each fall and spring. Her goal is to teach kids about the challenges facing the coasts and show them that all kinds of people are needed to help solve them. For more information about Dr. Van Bael’s research, and to follow along with her outreach activities, please visit her Lab Website here.

Get to Know CWC Researcher Giulio Mariotti

4573 Mariotti is a geobiologist developing a model to predict the rate at which marshes retreat due to waves and pond formation. His research with the Coastal Waters Consortium (CWC) will help predict future marsh loss and identify strategies to reduce it.

Learn more about his background and research here!

Grad Student Johnson Uses Amino Acids to Demystify Salt Marsh Food Webs

Jessica presents her research at the 2016 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill & Ecosystem Science conference in Tampa, FL. (Photo by Michael Polito)

Salt marshes support commercially and culturally important species and are often subject to natural and human-caused stressors. Gaps in our knowledge of salt marsh food webs made management and restoration decisions difficult after the Deepwater Horizon spill. Jessica Johnson helps fill this gap using novel chemical analysis techniques to describe the diets of salt marsh organisms and trace how energy flows through the marsh ecosystem food web. Her work may help inform decision making if a future spill occurs.

Jessica is a masters’ student with the Louisiana State University (LSU) Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences and a GoMRI Scholar with the Coastal Waters Consortium II (CWC II).

Her Path

Jessica participated in the Williams-Mystic Maritime Studies program in 2010 while completing a biology undergraduate degree at Tufts University. One of the program’s activities placed her at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium to gain experience working with salt marshes and the coastal environment. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred one month after she returned to Connecticut. “The spill had a very strong impact on me because I had just studied coastal issues in the spill area and knew how much it would affect the coastal environment,” said Jessica.

Jessica graduated from Tufts and worked in a Massachusetts genomics laboratory to gain practical research experience before pursuing graduate school. Although her position did not involve marine ecology, she kept herself close to the water through volunteer work for the Charles River Watershed Association and an internship with the New England Aquarium. While she worked, the oil spill was constantly at the back of her mind, and she wondered how that event had changed the coastal community in Louisiana.

Jessica saw an advertisement in 2015 for a graduate research position investigating Deepwater Horizon impacts on coastal salt marsh ecology and knew she had to pursue it. She contacted Dr. Michael Polito at LSU to learn more about the position. He encouraged her to apply for the Oceanography and Coastal Sciences graduate program, and Jessica moved to Louisiana in August 2015 to begin her CWC research.

Her Work

Jessica characterizes flow of energy between producers (such as plants, bacteria, and algae) and consumers (such as crabs and birds) from oiled and unoiled marshes using trophic biomarkers called stable isotopes. Basic analyses can determine stable isotope ratios in an organism’s tissues, which becomes a bulk geochemical signature deriving from all the fats, sugars, and proteins that the organism consumed. However, Jessica uses a compound-specific stable isotope analysis technique, which ecologists have just begun exploring for salt marsh research application, to identify the signatures of individual essential amino acids within an organism’s tissue proteins. She then identifies signatures from the food web base that show up in consumers farther up the food chain and maps how energy flows through the food web.

Jessica explains that the concept behind using stable isotopes for dietary research is “you are what you eat.” Producers can make essential amino acids themselves, but consumers cannot and must ingest them through their diets. This means that the essential amino acids found in consumer tissues ultimately come from the plant or algae source that made them. Because the geochemical signatures of amino acids do not change as they move up the food web, scientists can use this technique to observe how energy flows through a food web and whether a disturbance has altered that food web.

While Jessica can compare the energy flow of food webs in oiled and unoiled salt marshes, the lack of data pre-Deepwater Horizon makes it difficult to describe spill impacts confidently. Instead, her research helps establish a picture of what the marshes currently look like and provides responders with a clearer understanding of the way future spills may spread through and impact marsh ecosystems. “Our finished research will describe the ecology and food web of this system far better than anyone understood prior to the oil spill,” said Jessica. “I think that’s a common theme for GoMRI overall – people filling the knowledge gap they didn’t know existed until the oil spill happened.”

Her Learning

Jessica traces the flow of energy through the marsh ecosystem food web. (Provided by CWC)

Jessica’s research experiences taught her that analyzing fieldwork is sometimes more difficult than conducting laboratory experiments. Although the method behind her stable isotope analyses was straightforward, interpreting her results properly and responsibly was more complicated than she anticipated. “You have to be very careful with how you interpret what you measure in the field and make sure you understand what factors are driving the patterns that you see,” explained Jessica. “You have to be very rigorous in your experimental design and the conclusions you make from your research.”

Jessica’s first semester was with CWC, and it included her first experience conducting fieldwork and participating in a group workshop to build a marsh food web model using only existing literature. She initially expected to work only with her advisor on the project, but these early experiences show her how important collaboration is to scientific research. “This is a very unique organization in that we’re all here for the same basic purpose, but we’re also all coming from different places and going different places,” she said. “I was lucky that, in my very first semester, I got to be part of a team and not just work alone.”

Her Future

Jessica will begin a Ph.D. program studying stable isotope ratios in human diets at the University of Alaska Fairbanks next spring. Her research will investigate how the techniques used in her salt marsh research can apply to more clearly and objectively describe the human diet.

She believes that a willingness to take risks is the most important trait for students considering a scientific career. “Approaching a potential advisor can be very scary, especially when you’re young, but scientists want to train people who are enthusiastic and dedicated to the science,” she said. “Don’t be afraid to show your interest, that’s how you get your foot in the door.” She also emphasized that students shouldn’t be discouraged if their risks result in failure. “If you contact someone and they’re not interested, contact ten people – it will happen. Not everyone ends up there the same way, as there are many paths to science.”

Praise for Jessica

Polito was impressed initially with Jessica’s drive, maturity, and level of interest in the project. He was a new professor looking for a student who could take charge and hit the ground running. Jessica exceeded his expectations and took on an ambitious thesis project despite having little experience with isotopes. Two years later, Polito describes her as an expert in stable isotope analysis and says that she often teaches him new things about the technique.

“She really dug into the literature, learned the nitty-gritty details of the methodology, and came out the other end with a strong and exciting thesis that pushes the techniques to their limits,” he said. “This is a really powerful and novel technique, and she’s using it in the salt marsh where it’s really never been done at this level before.” Polito credited the project’s advancement on Jessica and her hard work and talent, “She’s going to have a bright future in sciences, and I’ll be sad to see her go when she graduates.”

The GoMRI community embraces bright and dedicated students like Jessica Johnson and their important contributions. The GoMRI Scholars Program recognizes graduate students whose work focuses on GoMRI-funded projects and builds community for the next generation of ocean science professionals. Visit the CWC website to learn more about their work.

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RFP IV Update: Alabama Center for Ecological Resilience (ACER)

Researcher John Valentine

The ACER objectives are: To assess how coastal ecosystem structure, as measured by multiple estimates of biodiversity, and functioning (its provision of valuable processes and services) have been affected by differential exposure to Deepwater Horizon oiling. To determine how the biodiversity of coastal ecosystems can buffer resistance and recovery from oiling. To determine the conditions of disturbance that drive coastal ecosystems beyond their “tipping points,” and prevent them from returning to their pre-disturbed states.

Click for access to GoMRI’s YouTube videos of RFP-IV Project Updates…

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This project was funded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) in the RFP-V funding program.

Oceanography Highlights Findings from Deepwater Horizon Research

Cover of the September 2016 Oceanography Magazine, Volume 29, Number 3

7^th year of the largest coordinated research endeavor around an ocean event.

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and subsequent response efforts raised concerns about impacts on the Gulf of Mexico’s ocean and coastal environments. The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI), in response to the spill, initiated an unprecedented 10-year scientific research program funded by BP. Seven years into the program, we know more than ever before about the Gulf’s complex environment, dynamic processes, and response to stressors.

Oceanography magazine dedicated a special issue to this research, GoMRI: Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science, and below are highlights from 13 papers it featured.*

WHERE OIL WENT

Surface oil covered a cumulative area of 149,000 km² in the northeastern Gulf. Wind and currents transported surface slicks towards land, affecting approximately 1,800-2,100 km of shoreline, a third of which were moderately to heavily oiled including 1,075 km in Louisiana. Macondo oil was visually evident at the edge of Louisiana marshes and up to 10 m inland.

Subsea oil and gas rose through the water column and formed an underwater oil plume that covered an area of approximately 930 km² and made direct contact with continental slope sediments. A significant proportion of surface oil returned to the deep seafloor primarily through an extensive marine oil snow sedimentation event known as a “dirty blizzard,” forming a 0.5-1.2 cm thick floc layer.

Cleanup efforts removed oil from 73% of beaches affected by the spill, but residual oil remained as surface residue balls (SRBs), submerged oil mats, and in marsh plants and sediment, and is subject to continued weathering, biodegradation, and possible resuspension.

HOW OIL CHANGED

Crude oils contain thousands of compounds that, upon entering a marine environment, undergo significant compositional changes from weathering processes such as evaporation, dissolution, emulsification, dispersion, sedimentation/flocculation, microbial degradation, and photooxidation.

Most crude oil compounds are readily biodegradable and generally follow a clear degradation pattern: n-alkanes first followed by branched alkanes, lower molecular weight aromatics, higher molecular weight aromatics, and cyclic alkanes. Anaerobic biodegradation is a slower process than aerobic degradation, and crude oil compounds can remain relatively unaltered in reduced sediments and environments for long time periods and may appear as relatively fresh oil compared to surface oil exposed to aerobic conditions.

MICROBIAL RESPONSE AFFECTING OIL FATE

Macondo oil had a relatively low content of persistent resins and asphaltenes, and warm temperatures supported geochemical and biological degradation. The prevalence of oil-degrading bacteria generated a prompt response from the microbial community and subsequent biodegradation. Microbial communities in the plume were different from those in non-plume waters and exhibited a significant enrichment of hydrocarbon-degrading metabolic genes. Aerobic oxidation of short chain alkanes, propane, and butane caused up to 70% of oxygen depletion observed in the oil plume.

Residual oil trapped in Pensacola Beach sands showed a progression of microbial populations linked to hydrocarbon degradation. Early-responder microbes were followed by populations capable of aromatic hydrocarbon decomposition. Microbial abundance in oiled sands was 10-10,000 times that in clean sands in the first four months after oil came ashore. A typical beach-environment microbial community returned after one year but differed significantly from pre-spill communities.

DEEP OCEAN IMPACTS

Carbon from the spill was likely incorporated into the mesopelagic (200-1,000 m depth) food web through consumption of prey rich in depleted carbon. The nature of microbial communities in the deep sea likely changed. An 80-93% decline in benthic foraminifera was related to reducing conditions and increased polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) concentrations.

Deepsea megafauna had lower diversity and abundance near the spill site relative to regions farther away, though blue marlin, Atlantic sailfish, blackfin tuna, and dolphinfish showed no significant reduction in larval abundance. Bottom-dwelling golden tilefish had the highest concentrations of naphthalene metabolite levels in bile measured in fishes globally. Tunas and jacks collected near the spill site exhibited developmental crude oil cardiotoxicity, suggesting a possible loss of early predator recruits that spawn in open waters. Sperm whale acoustic activity decreased near the spill site by a factor of two and increased farther away, suggesting they relocated.

Hard-bottom communities, including natural and artificial reefs, suffered injuries that were severe and long-lasting. Macrofauna and meiofauna diversity had not recovered after four years, and community structure differences still persist. Deep-sea colonial corals, in particular octocorals near the spill site, showed visible evidence of impact, and flocculent material covering the coral contained chemical fingerprints associated with Macondo oil and DOSS (dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate). Researchers returned to these coral eight times and observed continued impacts such as tissue death with some coral skeletons secondarily colonized by hydrozoans.

Field measurements showed that planktonic community abundance and species composition returned to pre-spill conditions within a year. Laboratory experiments indicated that zooplankton exposed to sublethal crude oil levels bioaccumulated five PAHs, which could increase their susceptibility to predation and enhance trophic transfer of toxic PAHs.

MARSH IMPACTS

There were immediate negative impacts in moderately to heavily oiled marshes in southeastern Louisiana. The average concentration of total alkanes and PAHs in June 2013 was 20 and 374 times pre-oiled conditions, respectively. Total alkane concentrations were on a trajectory to be near baseline levels by 2015, but this did not occur likely a result of multiple resuspension events from storms.

Some damaged marsh shorelines showed precipitous shoreline erosion at least 2.5 years after oiling due to damaged root systems. Marshes lost due to oiling and shoreline erosion will not return without human intervention. Forty-two months after the spill, heavily oiled marshes showed near-complete plant mortality, and live aboveground biomass was 50% of reference marshes. Decreased living marsh vegetation and population levels of some fauna were obvious for 2-5 years. Meiofauna density was lower along with S. alterniflora grasses in heavily oiled areas.

Fiddler crab average size declined and there were proportion shifts in two species composition. Periwinkle snails density declined, and a slow recovery in abundance and size distribution was related to habitat recovery. Worms, seed shrimp, and mud dragons had not recovered to background levels 48 months post-spill. Killifish showed little evidence of spill impacts. Horse fly abundance declined sharply. Arthropods were suppressed by 50% in 2010 but had largely recovered in 2011. Seaside Sparrow nests on unoiled sites were more likely to fledge than those on oiled sites. Loons varied in frequency with PAHs by year and exhibited reduced body mass as PAH concentrations increased.

These effects are expected to continue – possibly for decades – to some degree, or the marsh ecosystem will reach a new baseline condition in heavily damaged areas.

FISH & SEAFOOD IMPACTS

Commercial, recreational, and subsistence fisheries were closed in fall 2010 in areas where oil was observed and predicted to travel and reopened by April 2011. Impacts on fisheries productivity were relatively short-lived, with landings and their values returning to pre-spill levels or greater for most fishery species. However, long-term effects are yet to be determined. Laboratory studies indicate that early life stages of fish are generally more sensitive to oil and dispersant’s sublethal effects (with some resulting in reduced swimming performance and cardiac function) than adults.

Public health risks from exposure to crude oil residue through seafood or coastal beaches returned to pre-spill levels after the spill dissipated. Seafood from reopened areas was found to be safe for consumption, with PAH levels comparable to those found in common local processed foods. PAH concentrations detected in many seafood samples during and following the spill were at least 2 orders of magnitude below levels of public health concern. DOSS was detected in less than 1% of samples and at levels below public health concern.

Tests on SRBs showed that Vibrio vulnificus were 10 times higher than the surrounding sand and up to 100 times higher than seawater, suggesting that SRBs can act as reservoirs for bacteria including human pathogens. Coquina clams initially showed higher PAH levels relative to the surrounding sand, but levels decreased continuously and were undetectable in sand (one year) and Coquina tissues (two years).

DISPERSANT EFFECTS & FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES

Dispersant increased the oil fraction that spread within the water column and laterally displaced oil that reached the sea surface. Dispersants reduced droplet sizes and rise velocities, resulting in a more than tenfold increase in the downstream length of the surface oil footprint.

Chemical dispersants may be more toxic to some marine organisms than previously thought, and small oil droplets created by dispersant use and directly consumed by marine organisms are often more toxic than crude oil alone. Dispersant effects on microorganisms might be taxa-specific, and some studies suggest that dispersants stimulated biodegradation while others conclude the opposite. Degradation rates of hexadecane and naphthalene were more rapid in the absence of dispersants, as was the overall removal of the water-accommodated oil fraction.

Dispersant applied at the broken riser pipe helped form a deep water oil plume. DOSS was likely transferred to the plume and was later detected in surface sediments, on corals, and within oil-sand patties.

A future option is development of plant-based materials for efficient chemical herding of compact oil slicks into layers that are sufficiently thick to enable oil burning or skimming. Opportunities exist for new dispersants that work in synergy with current dispersants and mitigate some of their disadvantages. Examples include a system containing soybean lecithin and the surfactant Tween 80, substitution of lecithin for DOSS, and using carbon-based particles and silicas to stabilize emulsified droplets. Laboratory research needs to be conducted at concentrations and under conditions relevant to marine environments.

MODELING CAPABILITIES

Model improvements provide a better understanding of droplet formation in the turbulent plume above the wellhead. No model during the spill could predict droplet size distribution, which dictates rise times, dissolution, and biodegradation. Oil spill models now include the ability to simulate the rise of a buoyant oil plume from the seabed to the surface. Consideration of oil’s 3D movement permits the prediction of oil spreading through subsurface plumes. Our understanding of the near-surface oceanic layer and atmospheric boundary layer, including the influences of waves and wind, has also improved.

Oil spill modeling routines will likely be included in Earth system models, linking physical models with marine sediment and biogeochemical components. Advances in coupled nearfield-farfield dynamic modeling together with real-time, seven-day circulation forecasts allow for near-real-time tracking and forecasting of oil dynamics. This is the most promising approach for rapid evaluation of blowout predictions to support first response decisions.

* Overton, E.B., T.L. Wade, J.R. Radović, B.M. Meyer, M.S. Miles, and S.R. Larter. 2016. Chemical composition of Macondo and other crude oils and compositional alterations during oil spills. Oceanography 29(3):50–63

Socolofsky, S.A., E.E. Adams, C.B. Paris, and D. Yang. 2016. How do oil, gas, and water interact near a subsea blowout? Oceanography 29(3):64–75

Passow, U., and R.D. Hetland. 2016. What happened to all of the oil? Oceanography 29(3):88–95

Özgökmen, T.M., E.P. Chassignet, C.N. Dawson, D. Dukhovskoy, G. Jacobs, J. Ledwell, O. Garcia-Pineda, I.R. MacDonald, S.L. Morey, M.J. Olascoaga, A.C. Poje, M. Reed, and J. Skancke. 2016. Over what area did the oil and gas spread during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill? Oceanography 29(3):96–107

John, V., C. Arnosti, J. Field, E. Kujawinski, and A. McCormick. 2016. The role of dispersants in oil spill remediation: Fundamental concepts, rationale for use, fate, and transport issues. Oceanography 29(3):108–117

Passow, U., and K. Ziervogel. 2016. Marine snow sedimented oil released during the Deepwater Horizon spill. Oceanography 29(3):118–125

Tarr, M.A., P. Zito, E.B. Overton, G.M. Olson, P.L. Adhikari, and C.M. Reddy. 2016. Weathering of oil spilled in the marine environment. Oceanography 29(3):126–135

Joye, S.B., S. Kleindienst, J.A. Gilbert, K.M. Handley, P. Weisenhorn, W.A. Overholt, and J.E. Kostka. 2016. Responses of microbial communities to hydrocarbon exposures. Oceanography 29(3):136–149

Rabalais, N.N., and R.E. Turner. 2016. Effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on coastal marshes and associated organisms. Oceanography 29(3):150–159

Murawski, S.A., J.W. Fleeger, W.F. Patterson III, C. Hu, K. Daly, I. Romero, and G.A. Toro-Farmer. 2016. How did the Deepwater Horizon oil spill affect coastal and continental shelf ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico? Oceanography 29(3):160–173

Buskey, E.J., H.K. White, and A.J. Esbaugh. 2016. Impact of oil spills on marine life in the Gulf of Mexico: Effects on plankton, nekton, and deep-sea benthos. Oceanography 29(3):174–181

Fisher, C.R., P.A. Montagna, and T.T. Sutton. 2016. How did the Deepwater Horizon oil spill impact deep-sea ecosystems? Oceanography 29(3):182–195

Dickey, R., and M. Huettel. 2016. Seafood and beach safety in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Oceanography 29(3):196–203

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Video: CWC Researchers Use GoPros to Monitor Land Loss

Photo by CWC

A recent blog post describes how consortium scientists Giovanna McClenachan and R. Eugene Turner used GoPro® cameras to photograph a study site at two-hour intervals during four- to six-week periods between August 2014 and September 2015. Read about their findings here and check out the resulting time-lapse video!

RFP-V Lin: Resiliency and Recovery Connections in Oiled Wetland Plant-Microbial-Benthic Ecosystem

Restoration/remediation plots set up in a previously heavily oiled shoreline marsh along the northern Barataria Bay, Louisiana. (Photo provided by Qianxin Lin)

Marshes depend on a healthy, well-functioning complex of plants, microbes, and benthic communities to support the environmentally and economically important ecosystem services they offer, such as reducing storm surges and providing nursery grounds for many species. Researchers have been conducting studies assessing Louisiana marsh flora and fauna after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and have identified factors influencing the plant-microbial-benthic complex’s function and long-term sustainability. Their work-to-date suggests that recovery is occurring but is not yet complete, highlighting the need for a much longer-term study to better quantify marsh recovery and resiliency.

The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative recently awarded Dr. Qianxin Lin a grant to bring together marsh ecosystem researchers and build on their previous work. Specialists are collecting and analyzing samples of marsh plants, benthic organisms, and microbes and are synthesizing their observations to identify connections and influence on oiled marsh recovery. Their findings will help document long-term impacts on the coastal plant-microbial-benthic ecosystem and assess the recovery timeline. They are also evaluating the effectiveness of certain restoration and remediation strategies in promoting long-term sustainability in oil-affected marshes.

Sean Graham, Stefan Bourgoin, and Don Deis collect samples at a study site in northern Barataria Bay, Louisiana. (Photo provided by Qianxin Lin)

“Researchers are usually specialists who study just one of these components [plants, microbes, benthic communities] rather than all of them,” explained co-Principle Investigator John Fleeger. “We have a group of investigators who are working together to look at all of those parts, and we’re really getting the whole picture of how the marsh is responding.”

The researchers have been sampling the plant-microbial-benthic complex every six months for the last five and a half years. While their previous work focused on how the different components of the marsh responded to oil, they are now focusing on the long-term and larger picture of ecosystem recovery. Team members return to study sites and collect samples for each component of the study. Some will count the number of periwinkle snails, fiddler crab burrows, and aboveground plant stems present in the field and collect belowground root and rhizome samples. Others analyze soil samples using microscopes and DNA extractions to identify the functional microbial community. They are also testing soil shear strength to determine how stable it is and to make observations about oiling’s influence on the soil’s stability or erosion rate.

The team has already uncovered some of the plant-microbial-benthic connections they are seeking. For example, their work has shown that plants, such as the grass Spartina, and the densities of animals living in the sediment recovered at the same pace, suggesting that the recovery of sedimentary animals is closely correlated with plant recovery. Fleeger explained, “We have to make these connections thinking ‘What did the plant people find? What did the benthic people find? How can we look at those findings together and make connections within them?’ There’s no one big magic index that allows us to put all of the data in one big formula and crank out a number. We have to actually gauge how the different components are responding and then piece it together.”

The researchers plan to expand their work this summer to include field manipulative experiments that look closely at linkages they have identified, such as the relationship between plants and periwinkle snails. The team will investigate how strong these interactions are and how oil might tip the balance between the plants’ sustainability and the numbers of the snails eating them. They are also building on past experiments to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of restoration plantings and remediation with fertilizer. Initial assessments of the experiments have shown promising short-term results towards accelerating the pace of recovery and enhancing marsh stability. The team will continue experimenting with and evaluating combinations of planting and fertilizer to determine their viability as methods for enhancing long-term marsh recovery.

The project’s researchers are Qianxin Lin, John Fleeger, and Aixin Hou at Louisiana State University, Donald R. Deis at Atkins North America, Inc., and Sean Graham at Nicholls State University. Their project is Long-Term Impact, Recovery and Resilience: Wetland Plant-Microbial-Benthic Ecosystem Responses to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Mitigation Strategies Promoting Sustainability.

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RFP-V Van Bael: Chemical Evolution & Degradation of Petroleum in Saline Marsh Plants & Soils

Dr. Sunshine Van Bael

The importance of bacteria for biodegradation of petroleum is well described for contaminated seawater and coastal soils, but very little is known about the role of symbiotic plant bacteria in degrading petroleum. Endophytes are bacteria and fungi that live as symbionts within plant roots, stems and leaves. These symbionts are closely associated with the plant and some endophyte species serve the dual purpose of promoting plant growth and degrading petroleum inside of plant tissues. In an extreme environment such as a salt marsh, where oxygen is limited in soils, plants may be especially dependent on endophytic bacteria for resilience to stress and to respond to petroleum contamination.

The overall goal of the proposed research is to develop a mechanistic understanding of plant bacterial symbioses in relation to petroleum/dispersant pollution in saline marshes. The proposed work will characterize the transport, fate and catabolic activities of bacterial communities in petroleum-polluted soils and within plant tissues. The project focuses on Spartina alterniflora (smooth cordgrass), the foundational grass species within salt marshes along Atlantic and Gulf coasts. The specific goals are (1) to use next-generation genomic technology for characterizing the taxonomy and function of microbial communities inside of S. alterniflora tissues and in the rhizosphere, while relating these communities to the chemical evolution of crude oil constituents in plant tissues and in soil; and (2) to use new visualization and computational modeling approaches for investigating the biomechanical and chemical influences on bacteria movement at the interface of roots and soil to mechanistically relate bacterial chemotaxis to the presence of petroleum, dispersant, oxygen and root exudates. The proposed research goals directly address GoMRI research theme two, as each ultimately relates plant-symbiont interactions to the chemical evolution and biodegradation of petroleum and dispersants in coastal ecosystems. Pursuing these goals will advance understanding of key processes that occurred in the DWH spill and may occur in future spills.

The outcomes of the proposed research will include (1) a deeper knowledge of the functional genomics of petroleum degradation and uptake of petroleum into plants, (2) the first descriptions and computational models for the biomechanical and chemical aspects of bacterial movement at the root: rhizosphere interface in response to petroleum and dispersant, and (3) the first determination of how plant-endophyte symbioses influence the fate of petroleum in marsh ecosystems. Developing a mechanistic understanding of plant-symbiont-petroleum interactions could provide a foundation for the development of remediation tools using naturally occurring plant-bacteria combinations. Such strategies are being developed in other ecosystems but have not yet been extended to include coastal plants in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), where there is a persistently high threat of petroleum contamination.

This project was funded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) in the RFP-V funding program.

RFP-V Lin: Wetland Plant-Microbial-Benthic Ecosystem Responses & Mitigation Strategy

The Long-Term Impact, Recovery and Resilience: Wetland plant-microbial-benthic ecosystem responses to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and mitigation strategies promoting sustainability by P.I. Qianxin Lin, Louisiana State University

Researcher Qianxin Lin

The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill exposed the nation’s largest and most productive wetland estuarine environment, the Mississippi River Delta coastal wetland ecosystem, to an unprecedented potential for environmental damage. The coastal marshes are of special concern because of the suite of environmentally and economically important services they support, all of which depend on a healthy, well-functioning plant-microbial-benthic complex that drives the food web base.

Over the last five years, the PI’s team has monitored DWH oil spill effects in Louisiana, making 12 field-based data collections that have quantified both the impacts on, and recovery of, a broad array of flora and fauna. Continuing this research is especially important along heavy oiled shorelines where the marsh plants that serve as foundation species suffered severe mortality. Results to date indicate that recovery is occurring but not yet complete.

Hence, a much longer-term study is needed to fully quantify the recovery of the plant-microbial- benthic complex and to better understand marsh resiliency. Furthermore, the PI’s team has initiated, and is currently monitoring a remediation/restoration effort that could accelerate the recovery rate of lost ecological services.

Therefore, the overall goals of this proposed research are to (1) document the long-term impacts of the DWH oil spill on the coastal marsh plant-microbial-benthic complex, (2) quantify rates of, and controls on, long-term recovery, and (3) evaluate the potential and effectiveness of a restoration and remediation strategy for promoting and accelerating long-term sustainability. This proposed research supports GoMRI theme 3: (1) knowledge of environmental effects of petroleum on wetlands, marshes and organisms and (2) the science of ecosystem recovery and means for accelerating recovery.

The proposed research will emphasize ecological assessments of plant structure and function, interactions within the plant-microbe-benthic complex, cultivation-based and modern molecular biological analysis of microbial communities, algal and invertebrate responses, biogeochemistry, digital aerial imagery for erosion assessment, and overall marsh integrity. This research will provide a better scientific understanding of the oil spill effects and long-term recovery of the plant-microbial-benthic ecosystem, as well as practical information concerning strategies for accelerating ecosystem recovery, and thus long-term sustainability, of oil impacted coastal wetlands.

Click for access to GoMRI’s YouTube videos of RFP-V Projects…

This project was funded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) in the RFP-V funding program.

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RFP-V Van Bael: Can Bacteria Living in Plant Tissues Help Clean Up Oiled Marshes?

Postdoc Brittany Bernik strains marsh mud through a screen to prepare it for greenhouse experiments at Tulane University. (Photo by Sunshine Van Bael)

Living inside the roots and leaf tissues of marsh grass are bacteria and fungi known as endophytes that help promote plant growth. Since some endophytes can also help degrade petroleum that the plants absorb, it is possible they could be a natural tool to help clean up oil buried in marsh soils.

The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) recently awarded Dr. Sunshine Van Bael a grant to explore plant-bacterial symbioses as they relate to petroleum and dispersant pollution in coastal salt marshes. Her team is investigating how endophyte communities inside oiled coastal plants incorporate and amplify oil-degrading bacteria and if plants can deliver endophytic bacteria to polluted soils, hastening petroleum biodegradation. The team will use their findings to learn how plant-bacterial combinations may be used to quickly and safely restore oiled marshes.

Ph.D. student Stephen Formel helps collect soil at Bay Jimmy in Barataria Bay. (Photo by Brittany Bernik)

Preliminary research suggests that when coastal grasses are contaminated with petroleum, the bacterial communities in their tissues incorporate more taxa with petroleum tolerance and biodegradation capabilities. However, these processes are not well characterized. Improving our understanding about the mechanisms driving how grasses, symbiotic bacteria, and polluted soil interact could lead to the development of tools that use plant-delivered, naturally occurring bacteria to clean up polluted soils.

The team is conducting field work and controlled greenhouse experiments to identify how bacteria and bacterial communities behave in oiled and unoiled sites and determine how quickly the oil in soil and plant tissues are broken down. Next, they will investigate the bacteria’s interactions with oil droplets and oxygen and see if plant roots can deliver oxygen and bacteria to oil buried in the marsh soil.

The greenhouse experiment at Tulane University was set up in June 2016 to test how plants and their symbionts work together to clean up oil. (Photo by Stephen Formel)

“We know a lot about how bacteria break down oil in the ocean and on the beach, but we haven’t really investigated if and how this happens inside of the plant,” said Van Bael. “We hope to learn how plants and their microbial symbionts can influence oil spill clean-up, especially the possibility that the best tool to help clean up oil in buried marsh soils faster is plant-bacterial combinations.”

The project’s researchers are Sunshine Van Bael, Kyriakos D. Papadopoulos, Michael Blum, and Lisa Fauci of Tulane University, Claudia Gunsch of Duke University, and John Pardue of Louisiana State University. Their project is Chemical Evolution and Plant-Microbe Degradation of Petroleum in Saline Marsh Plants and Soils.

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The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) is a 10-year independent research program established to study the effect, and the potential associated impact, of hydrocarbon releases on the environment and public health, as well as to develop improved spill mitigation, oil detection, characterization and remediation technologies. An independent and academic 20-member Research Board makes the funding and research direction decisions to ensure the intellectual quality, effectiveness and academic independence of the GoMRI research. All research data, findings and publications will be made publicly available. The program was established through a $500 million financial commitment from BP. For more information, visit http://gulfresearchinitiative.org/.

Fact Sheet: Coastal Louisiana Flora and Fauna Fact-Sheets

These fact sheets highlight various flora and fauna living in the south Louisiana marshes.

Click the images below to download copies of these posters to share with your students.

Visit the Coastal Water Consortium’s Education & Outreach website for more information.

American Alligator Poster

Needlerush Poster

Roseate Spoonbill Poster

Marsh Periwinkle Snail Poster

Fiddler Crab Poster

Smooth Cordgrass Poster

Video: Meet Nancy Rabalais – Focusing on Coastal Ecosystems

Professor Nancy Rabalais (LUMCON) and her team focus their research on the effects of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on coastal ecosystems – particularly the Louisiana wetlands and marshes.

The creators of award-winning environmental series Journey to Planet Earth (hosted by Matt Damon) present Dispatches from the Gulf – an upcoming documentary film and educational outreach initiative highlighting exclusive scientific discoveries in health, ecosystems, innovation and recovery in the post-oil spill Gulf of Mexico.

Consortia: CWC I and CWC II
Themes: Physical, Chemical, Environmental

Share your thoughts at the following “Dispatches from the Gulf” Social Media links:

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“Dispatches from the Gulf” is a new Journey to Planet Earth (J2PE) episode showing how scientists confront the challenges of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The documentary also investigates the impact of the event on the ecosystems and communities along the Gulf of Mexico.

J2PE dramatizes new ways of looking at the delicate relationship between people and the world they inhabit. The series is designed to help viewers understand and cope with the most important environmental issues of the 21st century.

Through an interdisciplinary approach, these programs reach beyond the physical sciences and draw connections to politics, economics, sociology, and history. A common thread runs throughout — the necessity to achieve a balance between the needs of people and the needs of the environment. Though photographed on different continents and focusing on different sets of problems, audiences come to see why all of these stories are connected, providing a dramatic mosaic of how the Earth works as an interrelated system.

RFP-V Foil: Horse Fly Populations & Food Web Dynamics as Stress Indicators on Coastal Marsh

Claudia Husseneder gives an overview of the project at the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill & Ecosystem Science Conference January 2016
A Study of horse fly (Tabanidae) populations and their food web dynamics as indicators of the effects of environmental stress on coastal marsh health project is lead by P.I. Lane Foil, Louisiana State University Ag Center.

Within the tidal marshes of Louisiana the PAH levels in subsurface water in the marsh locations remained high enough to have lethal effects on fish for up to two months, and it has been shown that high levels of oil were retained in the sediment of oiled marsh for much longer. Whether oil components remain in sediments of certain tidal marsh habitats and what effect these residues or degradation caused by oiling have on the invertebrate food web of vertebrates and invertebrates is now an important question. The aftermath of the oil spill provides unprecedented research opportunities for years to come. Tools must be developed not only to assess the impact of a particular oil spill but also to provide screening methods for time- and cost-efficient assessments of marsh health after future environmental insults to help guide remediation efforts. For future unpredicted insults on tidal marshes such as oil spills, techniques for rapid and intensive baseline sample collections with minimum impact on the fragile ecosystem will be needed.

During a two year period beginning immediately after the spill, we conducted studies on the abundance of greenhead horse fly populations at four locations (Grand Bayou and Grand Isle which were oiled and Cypremort Point and Cameron which remained pristine). Horse fly abundance estimates showed severe crashes of adult tabanid populations as well as reduced numbers of larvae recovered from the soil in oiled areas. We propose to follow up that study with a longitudinal population genetic study of horse flies as bioindicators of marsh health and recovery. In 2011, we conducted surveys of tabanid larvae and their surrounding sediment, and specimens were archived to initiate studies on establishing the food web within the sediments. We propose to use those and future collections for metagenetic analyses to compare the micro- and meiofauna community in larval guts to that in the immediate soil environment where tabanid larvae are either present or absent. Based on this knowledge we will develop a time- and cost-efficient PCR-based diagnostic method to differentiate between healthy and biologically depleted marsh soil for use in intensive sampling.

Click for access to GoMRI’s YouTube videos of RFP-V Projects…

This project was funded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) in the RFP-V funding program.

What Can Horse Flies Tell Us About Marsh Health?

A greenhead horse fly partakes in a blood meal. (Photo by Claudia Husseneder)

Greenhead horse fly larvae live in Spartina marshes and are the top predator in the coastal wetlands invertebrate food chain between Texas and Nova Scotia.

Drs. Lane Foil and Claudia Husseneder discovered reduced genetic variation and severe declines in adult and larval horse fly populations living in oiled marshes, which showed that the horse flies could be an indicator species for post oil spill marsh health.

The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative recently awarded Foil and Husseneder a grant to build on their previous research and develop a reliable, cost-efficient tool for measuring marsh health using this horse fly. Foil and Husseneder began researching the abundance and genetic diversity of horse fly populations in oiled and unoiled Louisiana Spartina marshes in 2010. They will use historical and current samples of adult horse flies, their larvae, and the surrounding marsh soil to determine if adult horse fly populations have recovered and how their larval food web can be used to assess marsh health.

(Click to enlarge) The researchers sampled horse flies in oiled (Jefferson and Plaquemines Parishes) and unoiled (Cameron and St. Mary Parish) areas. (Provided by Lane Foil and Claudia Husseneder)

The researchers will use metagenomic sequencing to describe the invertebrate food web in soil samples and horse fly larvae stomach contents collected from oiled and unoiled marshes. Data will reveal the groups of organisms and level of diversity that the larvae need for healthy growth and development and if oiling alters the presence of their prey. The team will then develop a tool that uses polymerase chain reaction (PCR) – a technology that generates copies of a certain DNA region until it is prevalent enough to be detectable – to search certain genetic markers in soil and determine if the taxa needed for a healthy food web are present or absent.

“The species that we picked is native and tightly bound to the marsh,” said Husseneder. “If everything that the larvae need to develop is present, then we can assume the marsh is healthy enough to support this top-level predator. If not, then the marsh is likely compromised.”

Horse flies are collected using traps like this one located in Grand Bayou, Louisiana. (Photo by Claudia Husseneder)

Larval sample collection and genomic sequencing are expensive and time-consuming. The project’s PCR tool will offer a timely, cost-efficient, and easy alternative that scientists and citizens with access to a high-school-level molecular laboratory can use to screen soil samples and assess marsh health. The tool could also be expanded to include and apply data from studies of different species in different habitats.

Foil commented, “We have a specialty area that we are contributing to a much larger area of science. I believe the tools we are developing will be very important in helping other scientists and that what we learn from them will help us better adapt our tools. As we and other researchers make our information available, we can start to put together the big puzzle of what actually happened in the marsh.”

The project’s researchers are Lane Foil and Claudia Husseneder at the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center. Their project is A Study of Horse Fly (Tabanidae) Populations and Their Food Web Dynamics as Indicators of the Effects of Environmental Stress on Coastal Marsh Health.

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Meet Biologist Chuck Wall

(Click image for Spotlight)

Chuck Wall has a B.A. in Biology and Environmental studies from Williams College, and a Ph.D. in Marine and Atmospheric Sciences from Stony Brook University. He works with the Coastal Waters Consortium (CWC) studying the salt marsh habitat and the community of benthic organisms that live in the salt marsh, such as worms, snails, mussels, and small crustaceans. He is comparing marsh shorelines that were oiled in 2010 with unoiled marshes to search for differences in the abundance or distribution of these small organisms.

Read his Scientist Spotlight to learn more about him!

Grad Student Deb Adhikary Sees How Burrowing Shrimp Help Microbes Deal with Oil

Nihar conducts a 14C-radiolabeled naphthalene assay in a radioactive laboratory to determine naphthalene degradation rate using sediments after each greenhouse microcosm experiment. (Photo credit: Suchandra Hazra)

Nihar Deb Adhikary uses his veterinary training and microbiology research to better understand the connections between oil fate, microbial degradation, and sediment-dwelling organisms such as shrimp and clams.

“Oil in coastal sediment can significantly impact the animals that live there,” he said. “I think it will be amazing if we can show that these benthic organisms help enhance oil degradation.” Nihar is an environmental and evolutionary biology Ph.D. student at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and a GoMRI Scholar with the project The Effect of Sediment Bioturbators on the Biological Degradation of Petroleum in Coastal Ecosystems. He explains how a background in veterinary medicine led to studying oil-degrading microbes.

His Path

Nihar samples sediment and water from microcosms in the project’s greenhouse.
(Photo credit: Suchandra Hazra)

Nihar, an animal-lover, wanted to pursue biological sciences since he was in high school. He saw a veterinary career as the perfect way to practice biology and work with animals. However, while studying veterinary medicine at West Bengal University of Animal & Fishery Sciences in Kolkata, India, he became interested in conducting molecular and microbiological research. He explained, “Working with animals made me realize there are many different ways to address animal health problems.” After completing his veterinary degree, he enrolled in a masters’ program studying bacterial biofilms at Texas State University.

While conducting biofilm research, Nihar narrowed his interests to a combination of environmental science and microbiology. His opportunity came when he met Dr. Paul Klerks and his advisor Dr. Andrei Chistoserdov through the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Ph.D. program. Nihar soon began working on their GoMRI project researching the influence of bioturbators on petroleum bioremediation. He says, “While the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was a huge environmental disaster, it also presented the perfect opportunity to conduct research in environmental microbiology.”

His Work

Nihar works at the UL Lafayette Biology Department in the Chistoserdov Lab under the hooded ventilation system to quantify PAH dioxygenase gene expression. (Photo credit: Suchandra Hazra)

Nihar’s work assesses how bioturbators – organisms such as worms, shrimp, and crabs that burrow and live in sediment – affect the fate of oil by altering the physical and chemical properties of coastal marsh and beach sediment. He and his team are focusing on ghost shrimp and stout razor clams, two organisms abundant throughout the Gulf Coast. He recreates coastal sediment conditions in a greenhouse using ten-gallon (for razor clams) and thirty-gallon (for ghost shrimp) tanks filled with water and sediment. Once the shrimp and clams have acclimated to the tanks, he introduces crude oil. After ten days, his colleagues measure oil content in the water and sediment, and Nihar assesses the composition and activity of the microbial community.

Nihar observed that ghost shrimp activity increased degradation of naphthalene, the simplest polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon. He hypothesizes that ghost shrimp’s natural functions and movement add organic matter and allow oxygen to penetrate further into the sediment, stimulating the growth of aerobic microorganisms and thereby enhancing microbial oil degradation. Increased oil exposure due to bioturbation may also stimulate oil-degrading genes in microbes. Although he found no changes in the number of oil-degrading bacteria or the microbial community at the phylum level, he has begun analyses at the genus level and is preparing to analyze 16S rDNA libraries to better understand these findings.

His Learning

While conducting his research, Nihar enjoyed working with experts from different scientific fields. He said, “Both the laboratory work and the field sampling helped me understand the value of collaboration. Reaching out to other researchers at GoMRI meetings has broadened my insights into my own project and oil spill research as a whole.” Working with Chistoserdov and Klerks is especially exciting and encouraging for Nihar, who said that the skills and experience he has gained from them will help him with future research. “I believe I am working in a great program with great people at UL – Lafayette,” he said. “It is like a small family to me, providing me with a home away from home.”

His Future

Nihar (center) collects razor clams from Choctawhatchee Bay in Defuniac Springs, Florida, with Dr. Paul Klerks (left) and fellow graduate student Alex Kascak (right). (Photo credit: Lujun Luo)

After completing his Ph.D., Nihar plans to start a career in environmental science, preferably in an environmental consulting or testing company. He is also interested in pursuing a post-doctoral position to gain more experience in his field.

Praise for Nihar

Chistoserdov described Nihar as a dedicated and inquisitive researcher whose versatility is one of his greatest strengths. He explained that Nihar feels equally at home in the field and in the laboratory. Furthermore, he is accustomed to dealing with larger animals (in their case, shrimp and clams) through his veterinary background and working with microorganisms as a trained microbiologist. Chistoserdov said these traits make Nihar an ideal researcher for their project. He explained, “Nihar’s findings were made working in close collaboration with students and faculty from our university, underscoring another of his strong points – the ability to be a productive member of a research team.”

The GoMRI community embraces bright and dedicated students like Nihar Deb Adhikary and their important contributions. The GoMRI Scholars Program recognizes graduate students whose work focuses on GoMRI-funded projects and builds community for the next generation of ocean science professionals.

Visit the Klerks Lab website to learn more about their work.

This research was made possible in part by a grant from BP/The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) to The Effect of Sediment Bioturbators on the Biological Degradation of Petroleum in Coastal Ecosystems. The GoMRI is a 10-year independent research program established to study the effect, and the potential associated impact, of hydrocarbon releases on the environment and public health, as well as to develop improved spill mitigation, oil detection, characterization and remediation technologies. An independent and academic 20-member Research Board makes the funding and research direction decisions to ensure the intellectual quality, effectiveness and academic independence of the GoMRI research. All research data, findings and publications will be made publicly available. The program was established through a $500 million financial commitment from BP. For more information, visit http://gulfresearchinitiative.org/.

CWC Movie

The Coastal Waters Consortium (CWC) came together in early 2012 to assess the chemical evolution, biological degradation, and environmental stresses of petroleum and dispersant within Gulf of Mexico coastal and shelf ecosystems. CWC research and education and outreach programs are funded for 3 years by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative.

The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) was formed in May 2010 when BP committed $500 million over a 10-year period to create a broad independent research program to be conducted at research institutions primarily in the US Gulf Coast States. The mission of GoMRI is to investigate the impacts of the oil, dispersed oil, and dispersant on the ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico and affected coastal States in a broad context of improving fundamental understanding of the dynamics of such events and their environmental stresses and public health implications. GoMRI will also develop improved spill mitigation, oil and gas detection, characterization and remediation technologies.

Grad Student Chen Knows Ants Are More Than Just Bugs – They’re Oil Detectors!

Xuan (right) and Ben Adams, AKA “Max,” (left) collect insects in Louisiana marshes using a vacuum. (Photo provided by Xuan Chen)

Can watching ants really contribute to understanding an oil spill? Yes, it can! Ants have acted as indicators of environmental change in the past.

After oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill entered his research sites, Xuan Chen began uncovering new ways that ants can act as bioindicators of oil’s presence in and impacts on Louisiana marshes.

Xuan is a Ph.D. entomology student at Louisiana State University (LSU) and a GoMRI Scholar with Coastal Waters Consortium (CWC). He shares his path into oil spill research and the exciting developments of his evolving study.

His Path

Xuan has adored bugs ever since an undergraduate course at China Agricultural University introduced him to the fascinating world of insects.

Xuan (left) and Dr. Linda Hooper-Bui (right) check up on the marshes following Tropical Storm Lee. (Photo provided by Xuan Chen)

He “fell in love” with social insects—insects that live and work cooperatively together—because of their diversity, behavior, and contributions to ecosystem health. After completing his master’s work researching bee taxonomy and pollination biology, Xuan developed an interest in ant ecology. He began searching for professors in that field and contacted Dr. Linda Hooper-Bui, an entomologist specializing in fire ants at LSU. “His application really stood out,” says Dr. Hooper-Bui. “I got a gut feeling when I talked with him, and he’s been my right-hand man from day one.”

Xuan soon started his doctoral research examining the distribution and community structure of ants in coastal ecosystems. By April 2010, he had visited 95 different marsh and dune sites from Louisiana to Florida. When the Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred, Xuan received a call for help from Dr. Hooper-Bui—she was out of town and oil was headed for their Louisiana marsh sites. Despite a heavy end-of-semester schedule, Xuan hurried to the sites to collect more samples before the oil arrived. Using their pre-spill data, they would have the opportunity to study the oil’s effects on coastal ecosystems.

Xuan (right) and Brooke Hesson (left) en route to the marshes to collect insects and take soil samples. The boat’s captain, Jay Winters, can be seen in the background. (Photo provided by Xuan Chen)

This early research led to Xuan’s participation on two short-term GoMRI Block Grant oil spill projects led by Hooper-Bui and also his role as a member of the CWC consortium research team.

His Work

Ants’ high sensitivity to their habitats makes them excellent bioindicators of environmental change, and the spill presented “an opportunity to see if ants can indicate oil pollution in coastal ecosystems.” Xuan explains that the diversity of ants strongly corresponds with other organisms. In addition, ants are not only important food resources for many animals but also ecosystem engineers that make big contributions to nutrition cycling and microhabitat modification. Xuan’s project is special because it is one of the few studies that focuses on changes in the diversity and species composition of ants as indication of oil presence. “I also study them because they are quite pretty under the microscope,” he jokes.

However, the ants’ lovely aesthetics did not reflect the conditions of conducting marsh field research. Sinking into the mud was a frequent problem, and Xuan and his colleagues would often walk on their knees just to create enough surface area to move forward. Hooper-Bui recalls Xuan’s incredible work ethic after Hurricane Isaac, when field work became even more difficult with no water or electricity at nearby camps. “He was right there the whole time,” she says. “He didn’t care about his personal suffering. He was just happily working, knowing that we were collecting valuable data.”

Xuan measures canopy cover in the Maurepus Swamp Wildlife Management Area using a spherical densitometer. (Photo provided by Xuan Chen)

Xuan analyzes data from control and polluted sites using the before-after-control-impact (BACI) method to determine which environmental factors affect and regulate changes in the ant community. Although his data analysis is still ongoing, he is seeing differences in the structure of ant communities in oiled sites. Even three years after oiling, his work is showing that the ants have not returned to their pre-spill conditions. Xuan explained that the underlying mechanisms of the oil’s effects can be complex. Sometimes, oil may directly or indirectly kill ants. In other cases, it alters the ants’ foraging and nesting behaviors. He hopes that future research can make more definitive conclusions about the oil’s impacts on ant communities and coastal ecosystems.

His Learning

The most significant thing Xuan has learned from CWC is the importance of collaboration. While each lab may have a specific focus, he has found that “no single lab has all the resources necessary to study oil pollution’s effects on the entire ecosystem.” Xuan’s experience has shown him that through cooperation and data sharing, seemingly unrelated fields can enhance each other’s research and start piecing together the bigger picture.

His Future

Xuan uses an aspirator to collect ants from coastal dunes in Florida’s T.H. Stone Memorial St. Joseph Peninsula State Park. (Photo provided by Xuan Chen)

Xuan loves conducting research and hopes to expand his conservation biology research into other ecosystems. Although he is still completing his Ph.D., he is interested in university-level teaching, hoping one day land his dream job: a university-level position consisting of “50% research and 50% teaching.”

Praise for Xuan

Hooper-Bui cites Xuan’s eagerness to grow as a scientist as a major contribution to his success. “I said he should write a proposal, and he’s written six to eight of them,” she says. “I explained to him that science is getting more and more collaborative, and he established collaborations all on his own with people who I don’t even know.”

Hooper-Bui also mentioned Xuan’s amazing communication skills. At the 2013 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Conference, he was recruited by Sunshine Menendez, executive director of the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting, to present a 30-minute talk for journalists on interpreting scientific data. Xuan generated his own presentation, which he used to engagingly communicate with the journalists. “He poked some fun at himself, saying ‘I’m sure you’re like here’s this Chinese guy and I’m not going to be able to understand him,’ and it immediately made them laugh and relax,” Hooper-Bui recalls. “It went better than anyone could have hoped!”

Xuan (not pictured) received a lot of helpful assistance from student workers Theresa Crupi (left) and Alexander Sabo (right). Here, they set traps in the trees at Jean Lafitte National Park and Preserve in order to collect ants. (Photo provided by Xuan Chen)

Finally, Hooper-Bui expressed ways that Xuan has influenced her own research. “He’s stretching me as a scientist,” she says. “I want him to graduate, but only because he’s just the kind of person I want as my colleague. He’s tireless, out there taking samples all day long. Had he not been there to help, there is no way I would be where I am in this research. He is the number one contributor to our oil spill data—he’s pivotal.”

The GoMRI community embraces bright and dedicated students like Xuan Chen and their important contributions. The GoMRI Scholars Programrecognizes graduate students whose work focuses on GoMRI-funded projects and builds community for the next generation of ocean science professionals.

Katie Oxford, a columnist for CultureMap – Houston, interviewed Xuan Chen and wrote a first-hand account of his marsh field work in her Tattered Jeans column: The Ant Man from the Louisiana Marsh – Meet My Chinese Hero.

Visit the CWC website to learn more about their work.

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This research was made possible in part by a grant from BP/The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) to theCoastal Waters Consortium (CWC). The GoMRI is a 10-year independent research program established to study the effect, and the potential associated impact, of hydrocarbon releases on the environment and public health, as well as to develop improved spill mitigation, oil detection, characterization and remediation technologies. An independent and academic 20-member Research Board makes the funding and research direction decisions to ensure the intellectual quality, effectiveness and academic independence of the GoMRI research. All research data, findings and publications will be made publicly available. The program was established through a $500 million financial commitment from BP. For more information, visit http://gulfresearchinitiative.org/.

Coastal Waters Consortium Education and Outreach

The purpose of this site is to inform the public of current scientific research and education activities being conducted by the Coastal Waters Consortium which is funded through the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative.

Louisiana Scientists Present Marsh Research in Public Workshop Series

On board the R/V Acadiana, Dr. Tara Duffy and workshop participants collect marine and water samples in marsh waters. (Photo credit: Jessica Hernandez)

An old philosophical question asks, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

Similarly, if a scientist makes an important discovery and people do not hear about it, will it matter? Scientists are conducting research about oil and other impacts on coastal marine environments. Sharing this unfolding science with communities most affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is a priority for them.

Marine educator Jessica Hernandez with the Coastal Waters Consortium (CWC) voiced the importance of this outreach, saying, “What is scientific research if we cannot share it with the public?” To do this, educators and scientists with the CWC have established a series of public education workshops to highlight recent research about the chemical evolution, biological degradation, and environmental stresses of petroleum and dispersant in the Gulf of Mexico and their effects on coastal and shelf ecosystems.

Dr. Chuck Wall presents research on marine life that live in marsh sediment. (Photo credit: Jessica Hernandez)

Dr. Chuck Wall and Dr. Tara Duffy, postdoctoral research associates with the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON), led the first Gulf Lagniappe Public Education Workshop on October 26, 2013 at the DeFelice Marine Center in Cocodrie, Louisiana. Attendees listened to presentations, explored the bay, used laboratory equipment, and—in true Louisiana fashion—enjoyed a delicious chicken and sausage gumbo lunch.

Dr. Wall focused on two research areas—the hypoxic or “dead zone” in the Gulf and the effect of oil on the tiny creatures that live in salt marsh mud. He talked about the abundance and diversity of these mud-dwelling critters and explained his work that uses samples from both oiled and non-oiled areas to understand how oil exposure affects them.

Dr. Tara Duffy helps participants use laboratory equipment to study marine larvae. Photo credit: (Jessica Hernandez)

A fisheries expert, Dr. Duffy spoke about her work with the early life stages of blue crab, anchovy, red snapper, and trout to study the impacts of oil exposure on these animals at this delicate developmental stage. She described lab experiments that exposes larvae to oil and records how the organisms respond.

After the presentations, participants traveled by boat around the local estuary and used trawl nets to collect marine samples. They experienced the biodiversity – both plants and animals – that live right offshore and that are at risk. After the bay tour, the group looked at plankton specimens under a microscope. Viewing these tiny organisms, integral to the Gulf of Mexico’s food web, brought home the many lessons of the day on the interconnectedness of the environment.

On board the R/V Acadiana, workshop participants identify marine animals caught when trawling in marsh estuaries. (Photo credit: Jessica Hernandez)

One attendee explained the desire to continue learning about the research saying, “Unless you are in this career, the aspects of this life and the ecosystems all around us are never in your mind,” adding that it was important to know “the things we do that impact them and how they impact us.”

The CWC will host another all-day Gulf Lagniappe Public Education Workshop on Coastal Wetlands Formation, Functions, and Susceptibility on November 23 at the LUMCON facility in Chauvin, Louisiana. For more information, go to the CWC website. To register directly online, go to http://blogcwc.weebly.com/events.html.

This research was made possible in part by a grant from BP/The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) to the Coastal Waters Consortium. 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.

Worksheets: Oil Spill and Coastal Marshes Educational Activity Book

A fun and educational activity book that teaches children about the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and other marine science topics related to the Gulf of Mexico.

Click to download PDF (2 MB)

Click to download PDF – Spanish (2 MB)

Class Project: Water Quality Monitoring of Barataria Bay and Lake Pontchartrain Louisiana

A researcher collects a water sample to assess water quality in Breton Sound, LA. Photo: Gene Turner

Louisiana State University (LSU) researchers are intimately familiar with the estuaries that surround them. Since 1994, they have studied the water quality of Breton Sound, Barataria Bay and surrounding coastal waters. River flow into these two drainage basins has been drastically altered and both are now fed primarily by man-made diversions and channels. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill has led LSU scientists to extend and increase their sampling efforts in these environmentally sensitive areas.

Classroom Activity: Water Quality
Water quality is monitored by measuring physical, chemical and biological characteristics of a body of water. In this activity, students will visit a nearby water body to investigate how healthy it is by taking scientific measurements and making observations.

PDF: Water Quality Monitoring of Barataria Bay and Lake Pontchartrain -PDF 1.09MB

Class Project: The Pontchartrain Basin – After the Oil Spill

Eelgrass, Rangia clams and oysters collected from the Pontchartrain Basin for oil spill monitoring. Photo credit: UNO PIES

Scientists with the University of New Orleans were busy monitoring the coastal ecosystem of the Pontchartrain Basin in Louisiana following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Their monitoring program aimed to track and evaluate the effects of oiling on eelgrass, oysters and clams, and free swimming fish and invertebrates. The information gained from this study builds on existing monitoring programs addressing the importance of the natural resources of the ecosystem.

Classroom Activity: The Pontchartrain Basin Watershed
A watershed is the area of land where all surface and ground water and precipitation drain to the same location. The Pontchartrain Basin watershed drains the creeks, rivers and lakes of southern Louisiana into the Gulf of Mexico. The water carries along with it naturally occurring nutrients and sediments but also harmful pollutants.

PDF: The Pontchartrain Basin_After the Oil Spill -PDF 1.26MB

Class Project: Monitoring Nursery Habitats After the Oil Spill

Researchers use a specially designed net to trap animals that use the marsh during high tide. Credit: Ryan Moody

Salt marshes and seagrass meadows, common across the northern Gulf of Mexico, are highly productive ecosystems that provide critical habitat to many ecologically and economically important species of finfish and shellfish. Juvenile crabs, shrimp and fish that seek refuge in these habitats were threatened during the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Fortunately, scientists are finding no significant changes in Alabama’s marsh and seagrass habitats.

Classroom Activity: Random Sampling
Random sampling methods are used by scientists to estimate species abundance or species diversity in a given area. These methods can easily be adapted for classroom or at-home activities.

Monitoring Nursery Habitats After the Oil Spill – PDF 1.6MB

Class Project: Gulf Coast Salt Marshes – Oil Spill Impacts

Satellite image of 2010 sampling locations along Louisiana and Mississippi coast. Image credit: MSU

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill put hundreds of miles of the northern Gulf of Mexico coastline in harm’s way. Salt marshes in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama received varied amounts of oil during the summer of 2010, ranging from light sheen and tarballs in the east to patchy, heavy oiling in the west and along barrier islands. Dr. Deepak Mishra, along with colleagues at Mississippi State University, is working with NGI to address the large scale disturbances of these fragile gulf coast salt marshes.

Classroom Activity: Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis, the process by which plants take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, add water, and use the energy from sunlight to produce sugar, can be divided into two major reaction types: light-dependent and light-independent. This activity demonstrates both, and can lead to further discussions and experiments of factors in the environment that can affect the rate of photosynthesis.

Gulf Coast Salt Marshes_Oil Spill Impacts – PDF 1.4MB

Class Project: An Overview of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Satellite image of the Gulf of Mexico showing the spreading oil sheen May 24, 2010. (Photo/NASA)

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana. The resulting oil spill lasted 87 days and created the largest accidental release of oil the world had ever seen. While much of the northern Gulf of Mexico was spared, receiving little to no oil, other areas were heavily impacted. Several different methods were used to contain and clean up the oil, with varied success. Efforts to remove oil from the water and beaches are onging where necessary. Scientists continue to monitor coastal habitats to document and understand both the short- and long-term effects.

Classroom Activity: Still the Spill
Protecting the estuaries and coastal habitats of the northern Gulf of Mexico was of utmost importance during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. A variety of materials were used to protect habitats and clean up the oil as it came ashore. Dispersants, chemicals that break down hydrocarbons, were used in some locations.

An Overview of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill – PDF 1.4MB

Class Project: Breton Sound Estuary: Water Quality

Major lakes and waterways in the Breton Sound estuary. Numbers refer to water testing locations along sampling route. Image: LSU

The Mississippi River Delta region, including the Breton Sound estuary along the southeastern coast of Louisiana, is both environmentally and economically important. The swamps, bogs and marshes of this region account for 40% of all the wetlands in the lower 48 states. Unfortunately,
these habitats were put in harm’s way when oil from the Macondo well began washing ashore. Scientists from Louisiana State University closely monitor water quality in the Breton Sound estuary and have expanded their efforts since the oil spill.

Classroom Activity: Water Quality on the Web
The internet is a valuable source for scientific data available to the public. In this lesson, students will access water quality information about Mobile Bay, a body of water that shares similar characteristics with Breton Sound. They will learn how to interpret the data provided and gain a better understanding of how water quality impacts a habitat.

Breton Sound Estuary_Water Quality – PDF 1.6MB

Lesson Plan: Chia Pets in Oily Situations (Coastal Wetlands)

After the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, a heavy layer of oiled vegetation mats were preventing the thick emulsified oil underneath from breaking down along Barataria Bay’s marshes. (NOAA/Scott Zengel)

Coastal wetland vegetation is essential to the coastal area because it provides a barrier for the local community, a nursery habitat for juvenile organisms, and a highly productive environment for the marine life. This form of vegetation has a very high potential to come in contact with pollution, originating from inshore or offshore sources, because it is in areas usually separating ocean from land.

The most recent and notable offshore drilling incident was the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill which was responsible for releasing millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and the surrounding coast. There are different types of oils and each has varying degrees of physical harm for proximal vegetation and soil, inducing and/or intensifying coastal erosion. The pollutant decays the root area of plants, creating a looser soil with a weaker support system.

This is a symbolic experiment for coastal wetland vegetation that may come in contact with light crude oil contamination (vegetable oil), heavier crude oil contamination (motor oil), or crude oil contamination in hypersaline environments. Light crude oil should be less harmful to wetlands in comparison to a heavier crude oil (more metal content) or even light crude oil in hypersaline areas (high salt content may absorb more water and nutrients from the plants, allowing for further smothering of the vegetation by oil).

Lesson Plan PDF – Chia-Pets-in-Oily-Situations

CWC Involves All in the Family in Oil Spill Marsh Science

Alan and Anissa Holekamp enjoyed looking at a juvenile blue crab that was caught in the trawl aboard the R/V Acadiana during Dads and Daughters Day. (Photo by Murt Conover)

“My mom would love this boat ride.” “I wish my child could walk the marshes.”

Murt Conover, Senior Marine Educator and Aquarist with the Coastal Waters Consortium (CWC), often hears comments like these when leading teacher and student groups at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) facility. She thought it seemed like a “no brainer” to put parents and kids together in outreach programs, and thus the inaugural Father/Daughter and Mother/Son Discovering Coastal Waters Science events were born.

Mothers and sons identified, sorted, and counted the species caught in a trawl in Terrebonne Bay aboard the R/V Acadiana. (Photo by Murt Conover)

Conover loves planning educational activities that get local families outside in the marshes and waterways to learn about the delicate ecosystem that surrounds them. They also learn about impacts from natural and manmade hazards that affect this region, one being the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. She explains, “We like to get people to experience it first hand, because ownership leads to responsibility. We have a very ‘get your feet wet and hands muddy’ philosophy as far as education goes!” But the events are not just pretty nature walks. Participants often gather samples and analyze them in the LUMCON lab using state-of-the-art research technology. “We do the scientific process from start to finish,” Conover says proudly.

Groups of dads and daughters conducted experiments to learn about how oil can behave in currents before and after it has been dispersed. (Photo by Murt Conover)

Earlier this year, close to Valentine’s Day, CWC hosted a Dads and Daughters Day. They began with a ride on the R/V Acadiana to see the beauty of the Louisiana coast and to experience the kinds of tasks scientists perform on a research vessel. That afternoon, the group conducted oil-spill related experiments in the lab. After the experiments, they finished the day learning about marsh habitat.

CWC hosted a Mothers and Sons Day in May in honor of Mother’s Day. This event was similar to the Dads and Daughters Day, but because of the warmer weather, they constructed Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) and tested them outside. Both the moms and the sons enjoyed working with this research technology and being out in the field. One son said, “We walked into the marsh. That was a first for me. We saw little house-like areas made of sticks.” He added, “I’m glad to see the oil spill didn’t kill all of the animals.”

Mother Shawn Duplessis and her son Brady learned the names of the vegetation found on a natural ridge in the salt marsh. (Photo by Murt Conover)

One of the main goals of these programs was to acquaint locals with current research being done to learn about the environmental response to the oil spill, and participants’ feedback showed success. One mom gave this family outreach event the perfect review, commenting, “I wasn’t aware of the structure in place for studying oil spill impacts. It is comforting to realize that compassionate and competent people are researching independently, because without the independent research, it would be hard to trust the data provided to the public.”

Conover enjoyed watching the father/daughter and mother/son dynamics as they learned about the coastal environment. And since her own father came to support her efforts, the father/daughter event was even more special. She laughs, “Having my dad there that day, I got the same kind of experience as the other girls. It was fun to be the educator and the daughter.”

Both inaugural events had full attendance and participants and staff were pleased with these learning experiences. The CWC plans to host similar family-themed events in the coming months.

This research was made possible in part by a grant from BP/The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) with the Coastal Waters Consortium. 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.