Oceanography The Official Magazine of
The Oceanography Society

Volume 29 | Number 3 | September 2016

Special Issue on GoMRI: Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science

On the Cover: [CENTER] Deepwater Horizon oil rig prior to the April 2010 accident. Source: National Commission of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling [CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT] (1) Photo showing oil (brown blobs) inside a copepod nauplius of Parvocalanus crassirostris. Photo credit: Rodrigo Almeda (2) Jonathan Delgardio and Will Overholt (Georgia Institute of Technology) collect samples from a Pensacola Beach sand trench with oil layers. Photo credit: Markus Huettel (3) A chromatogram of oil that leaked from the Macondo well during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Each peak represents one of thousands of individual chemical compounds in the oil. Image courtesy of Bob Nelson, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (4) Splash resulting from impact of a raindrop on a 400 µm oil slick. Image credit: David W. Murphy, Johns Hopkins University (5) Fishers offload yellowedge grouper from a fishing vessel near Tampa, Florida. Photo credit: Steve Saul (6) Ocean color satellite imagery and high-resolution circulation models were used to delineate possible phytoplankton blooms. Fieldwork is needed to confirm these phenomena. Image credit: Ocean Weather Laboratory (7) Researchers found sea pansies and lined sea stars when trawling offshore of the Chandeleur Islands. This spring 2015 survey is helping to document mid- and higher-level consumer diversity and abundance across the northern Gulf of Mexico. Photo courtesy of the Alabama Center for Ecological Resilience (8) Consortium for Advanced Research on Transport of Hydrocarbon in the Environment drifter trajectories in the Gulf of Mexico superimposed on Aviso surface currents. Image credit: Edward Ryan and Tamay Özgökmen, University of Miami (9) Coastal Waters Consortium (CWC) researchers mark study sites in a marsh. Photo credit: CWC Consortium
Cover PDF
Volume 29 Issue 03
SPECIAL ISSUE FEATURES

Introduction to the Special Issue: An Overview of the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative
Shepherd, J., D.S. Benoit, K.M. Halanych, M. Carron, R. Shaw, and C. Wilson. 2016. Introduction to the special issue: An overview of the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative. Oceanography 29(3):26–32, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2016.58.

An Opportunity to Inform and Educate Through the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative: Outreach Efforts Surrounding the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
By Debra S. Benoit, Leigh A. Zimmermann, Katie H. Fillingham, Stephen H. Sempier , Nilde M. Dannreuther, Jarryl B. Ritchie, and Kenneth M. Halanych

Chemical Composition of Macondo and Other Crude Oils and Compositional Alterations During Oil Spills
By Edward B. Overton, Terry L. Wade, Jagoš R. Radović, Buffy M. Meyer, M. Scott Miles, and Stephen R. Larter

How Do Oil, Gas, and Water Interact Near a Subsea Blowout?
By Scott A. Socolofsky, E. Eric Adams, Claire B. Paris, and Di Yang

Methods of Oil Detection in Response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
By Helen K. White, Robyn N. Conmy, Ian R. MacDonald , and Christopher M. Reddy

What Happened to All of the Oil?
By Uta Passow and Robert D. Hetland

Over What Area Did the Oil and Gas Spread During the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill?
By Tamay M. Özgökmen, Eric P. Chassignet, Clint N. Dawson , Dmitry Dukhovskoy, Gregg Jacobs, James Ledwell , Oscar Garcia-Pineda, Ian R. MacDonald, Steven L. Morey, Maria Josefina Olascoaga, Andrew C. Poje, Mark Reed, and Jørgen Skancke

The Role of Dispersants in Oil Spill Remediation: Fundamental Concepts, Rationale for Use, Fate, and Transport Issues
By Vijay John, Carol Arnosti, Jennifer Field, Elizabeth Kujawinski , and Alon McCormick

Weathering of Oil Spilled in the Marine Environment
By Matthew A. Tarr , Phoebe Zito, Edward B. Overton, Gregory M. Olson, Puspa L. Adhikari, and Christopher M. Reddy

Responses of Microbial Communities to Hydrocarbon Exposures
By Samantha B. Joye, Sara Kleindienst, Jack A. Gilbert , Kim M. Handley, Pamela Weisenhorn, Will A. Overholt, and Joel E. Kostka

How Did the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Affect Coastal and Continental Shelf Ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico?
By Steven A. Murawski , John W. Fleeger , William F. Patterson III , Chuanmin Hu, Kendra Daly, Isabel Romero, and Gerardo A. Toro-Farmer

How Did the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Impact Deep-Sea Ecosystems?
By Charles R. Fisher, Paul A. Montagna, and Tracey T. Sutton

Synthesis and Crosscutting Topics of the GoMRI Special Issue
By John W. Farrington , Kathryn A. Burns , and Margaret S. Leinen

Special Issue Guest Editors

Debra S. Benoit, Nicholls State University
Kenneth M. Halanych, Auburn University
John Shepherd, University of Southampton
Richard Shaw, Louisiana State University
Chuck Wilson, Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative

Sponsors

Production of this issue of Oceanography was supported by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative.