Volume 97, Issues 1–2, 15 August 2015, Pages 67–77
Highlights
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- West Florida Shelf beaches show evidence of DWH oil.
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- Contamination from the DWH oil spill may have reached the beaches off of Tampa Bay.
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- First direct evidence directly linking West Florida beaches to DWH spill.
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- Corexit dispersant “signature” compound (DOSS) observed in St. Petersburg beach.
Abstract
The
ecological consequences of the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill are
both long-term and pervasive. The distribution of toxicity and
mutagenicity in the Gulf of Mexico suggests oil from the DWH spill could
have contaminated the West Florida Shelf (WFS). We utilized polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) analysis to determine presence and potential
origin of oil contaminants in beach sand patty samples. PAH profiles
from WFS beaches were statistically significantly similar to DWH
contaminated samples from the Northeast Gulf of Mexico (Gulf Shores, AL;
Ft. Pickens, FL). Dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate (DOSS), a major
component of Corexit 9500 dispersant was also detected in the sediments.
DOSS concentrations ranged from 1.6 to 5.5 ng g−1 dry
weight. Additionally, two samples from DWH oil contaminated beaches were
acutely toxic and one WFS beach sediment sample was mutagenic. These
observations provide support for the theory that DWH oil made its way
onto beaches of the WFS.
Graphical abstract
Keywords
- Deepwater Horizon;
- Oil spill;
- DWH;
- Mutagenic;
- DOSS;
- PAH profile
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