{"id":113725,"date":"2018-07-02T12:00:12","date_gmt":"2018-07-02T11:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=113725"},"modified":"2018-06-30T15:36:16","modified_gmt":"2018-06-30T14:36:16","slug":"deepwater-horizon-disaster-altered-building-blocks-of-ocean-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/07\/deepwater-horizon-disaster-altered-building-blocks-of-ocean-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Deepwater Horizon Disaster Altered Building Blocks of Ocean Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oil spill disaster reduced biodiversity in sites closest to spill, report finds, as White House rolls back conservation measures.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Response crews battle fire on BP-operated oil rig Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico on 21 April 2010. Photograph: HO\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

28 Jun 2018 – <\/em>The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster<\/a> may have had a lasting impact upon even the smallest organisms in the Gulf of Mexico, scientists have found \u2013 amid warnings that the oceans around America are also under fresh assault as a result of environmental policies under Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Lingering oil residues have altered the basic building blocks of life in the ocean by reducing biodiversity in sites closest to the spill, which occurred when a BP drilling rig exploded in April 2010, killing 11 workers and spewing about 4m barrels of oil into the Gulf.<\/p>\n

Researchers took sediment samples in 2014 from shipwrecks scattered up to 150km (93 miles) from the spill site to study how microbial communities on the wrecks have changed. On two shipwrecks close to the source of the outpouring of oil \u2013 a German U-Boat and a wooden 19th-century sailing vessel \u2013 scientists saw a visible oil residue.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the sites closest to the spill, biodiversity was flattened,\u201d said Leila Hamdan, a microbial ecologist at the University of Southern Mississippi and lead author of the study<\/a>. \u201cThere were fewer types of microbes. This is a cold, dark environment and anything you put down there will be longer lasting than oil on a beach in Florida. It\u2019s premature to imagine that all the effects of the spill are over and remediated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Patches of oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill are seen from an underwater vantage in the Gulf of Mexico on 7 June 2010.
Photograph: Rich Matthews\/AP<\/p><\/div>\n

The BP oil disaster fouled more than 1,300 miles of coastline, caking seabirds and killing sea creatures and other wildlife, leading to huge financial losses for the tourism and fishing industries. But Hamdan said the oil\u2019s impact on microbes, each measuring just a fraction of a millimeter, could prove even more significant given their foundational role at the base of the ocean food chain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe rely heavily on the ocean and we could be looking at potential effects to the food supply down the road,\u201d she said. \u201cDeep sea microbes regulate carbon in the atmosphere and recycle nutrients. I\u2019m concerned there will be larger consequences from this sort of event.\u201d<\/p>\n

The findings, published today, come as the Trump administration dismantles ocean conservation measures put in place by former president Barack Obama in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon calamity.<\/p>\n

Last week, Trump issued an executive order<\/a> that essentially revoked an Obama directive<\/a> that established the National Ocean Council to \u201censure the protection, maintenance and restoration\u201d of the oceans and the Great Lakes.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s order, which does not mention the Deepwater Horizon spill, hands more responsibility to the states for drilling safety and frames environmental protections as a potential barrier to industries that \u201cenhance America\u2019s energy security\u201d. The president said he was \u201crolling back excessive bureaucracy created by the previous administration\u201d with his order.<\/p>\n

Congressional Republicans and industry groups cheered the move, which follows Trump\u2019s sweeping expansion of offshore areas, including the Arctic, available for drilling. Jack Belcher, managing director of the pro-industry National Ocean Policy Coalition, said Trump\u2019s order removes \u201ca significant cloud of uncertainty\u201d for businesses.<\/p>\n

But conservationists are appalled. Christy Goldfuss, a former environmental adviser to Obama, said Trump is waging an \u201call-out war on America\u2019s oceans\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump is trying to wash his hands of responsibility for the real and urgent threats facing America\u2019s coastal communities \u2013 namely, the impacts of climate change,\u201d said Goldfuss, who is now a senior vice-president at the Center for American Progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the absence of a president who is willing to lead, it is now more important than ever that coastal governors, tribal leaders, state legislatures and local communities take up the mantle of leadership and work together to defend and restore the health of America\u2019s oceans.\u201d<\/p>\n

_________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Oliver Milman is an environment reporter for<\/em> Guardian US.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Go to Original \u2013 theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

28 Jun 2018 – The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster may have had a lasting impact upon even the smallest organisms in the Gulf of Mexico, scientists have found \u2013 amid warnings that the oceans around America are also under fresh assault as a result of environmental policies under Donald Trump.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":113726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}