Autonomous water sampler for oil spill response

© The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Gomez-Ibanez, D., Kukulya, A. L., Belani, A., Conmy, R. N., Sundaravadivelu, D., & DiPinto, L. Autonomous water sampler for oil spill response. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 10(4), (2022): 526, https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10040526.A newly developed water sampling system enables autonomous detection and sampling of underwater oil plumes. The Midwater Oil Sampler collects multiple 1-L samples of seawater when preset criteria are met. The sampler has a hydrocarbon-free sample path and can be configured with several modules of six glass sample bottles. In August 2019, the sampler was deployed on an autonomous underwater vehicle and captured targeted water samples in natural oil seeps offshore Santa Barbara, CA, USA.This work was supported by the United States Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement under contract number E18PG00001

A review of the toxicology of oil in vertebrates : what we have learned following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

This research was made possible by a grant from The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative. This publication is UMCES contribution No. 6045 and Ref. No. [UMCES] CBL 2022-008. This is National Marine Mammal Foundation Contribution #314 to peer-reviewed scientific literature.In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, a number of government agencies, academic institutions, consultants, and nonprofit organizations conducted lab- and field-based research to understand the toxic effects of the oil. Lab testing was performed with a variety of fish, birds, turtles, and vertebrate cell lines (as well as invertebrates); field biologists conducted observations on fish, birds, turtles, and marine mammals; and epidemiologists carried out observational studies in humans. Eight years after the spill, scientists and resource managers held a workshop to summarize the similarities and differences in the effects of DWH oil on vertebrate taxa and to identify remaining gaps in our understanding of oil toxicity in wildlife and humans, building upon the cross-taxonomic synthesis initiated during the Natural Resource Damage Assessment. Across the studies, consistency was found in the types of toxic response observed in the different organisms. Impairment of stress responses and adrenal gland function, cardiotoxicity, immune system dysfunction, disruption of blood cells and their function, effects on locomotion, and oxidative damage were observed across taxa. This consistency suggests conservation in the mechanisms of action and disease pathogenesis. From a toxicological perspective, a logical progression of impacts was noted: from molecular and cellular effects that manifest as organ dysfunction, to systemic effects that compromise fitness, growth, reproductive potential, and survival. From a clinical perspective, adverse health effects from DWH oil spill exposure formed a suite of signs/symptomatic responses that at the highest doses/concentrations resulted in multi-organ system failure.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

A COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF AZINPHOSMETHYL BIOACCUMULATION AND TOXICITY IN TWO ESTUARINE MEIOBENTHIC HARPACTICOID COPEPODS

Abstract—Aqueous, pore-water, and whole-sediment bioassays were conducted with meiobenthic copepods with different infaunal lifestyles to assess the acute and chronic toxicity of the organophosphorous pesticide azinphosmethyl (APM) and its bioaccumulation potential in sediments. Biota sediment accumulation factors were an order of magnitude higher for the deeper burrowing Amphiascus tenuiremis (26.6) than the epibenthic Microarthridion littorale (2.2). The female A. tenuiremis APM median lethal concentration (LC50; 3.6 mg/L) was twice the male LC50 (1.8 mg/L), in straight seawater exposures, and nearly 20 % higher than males in whole-sediment exposures (540 vs 456 ng/g dry weight). Amphiascus tenuiremis were 17 times more sensitive to sediment-associated APM than M. littorale. In pore-water–only exposures, the adult mixed-sex A. tenuiremis LC50 (5.0 mg/L) was nearly twice the seawater mixed-sex LC50 (2.7 mg/L). Dissolved organic carbon in pore water was five times higher (20 mg/L) than in seawater-only exposures (4 mg/L). Differences in acute toxicity within exposure media were driven by species- and sex-specific differences in lipid content. Amphiascus tenuiremis likely experienced greater exposure to sediment-associated toxicants via longer periods of direct contact with pore water than M. littorale and, therefore, exhibited correspondingly higher bioaccumulation and acute toxicity. Copepod reproduction was significantly reduced (.60%) in 14-d sediment culture exposures at sublethal APM levels, suggestin

Measuring oil residence time with GPS-drifters, satellites, and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS)

As oil production worldwide continues to increase, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico, marine oil spill preparedness relies on deeper understanding of surface oil spill transport science. This paper describes experiments carried out on a chronic release of crude oil and aims to understand the residence time of oil slicks using a combination of remote sensing platforms and GPS tracked drifters. From April 2017 to August 2018, we performed multiple synchronized deployments of drogued and un-drogued drifters to monitor the life time (residence time) of the surface oil slicks originated from the MC20 spill site, located close to the Mississippi Delta. The hydrodynamic design of the two types of drifters allowed us to compare their performance differences. We found the un-drogued drifter to be more appropriate to measure the speed of oil transport. Drifter deployments under various wind conditions show that stronger winds lead to reduce the length of the slick, presumably because of an increase in the evaporation rate and entrainment of oil in the water produced by wave action. We have calculated the residence time of oil slicks at MC20 site to be between 4 and 28 h, with average wind amplitude between 3.8 and 8.8 m/s. These results demonstrate an inverse linear relationship between wind strength and residence time of the oil, and the average residence time of the oil from MC20 is 14.9 h. •Satellite remote sensing can be used to track oil displacement.•GPS tracked drifters and UAS can be used to estimate the oil residence time.•Wind strength is inversely correlated to oil time residence.•River plumes will influence the oil transport despite wind and currents

Classification of Oil Spill by Thicknesses using Multiple Remote Sensors

Satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an operational tool for monitoring and assessment of oil spills. Satellite SAR has primarily been used to detect the presence/absence of oil, yet its ability to discriminate oil emulsions within a detected oil slick has not been fully exploited. Additionally, one of the challenges in the past has been the ability to deliver strategic information derived from satellite remote sensing in a timely fashion to responders in the field. This study presents methods for the rapid classification of oil types and estimated thicknesses, from which information about thick oil and oil emulsions (i.e., “actionable” oil) can be delivered in an operational timeframe to responders in the field. Experiments carried out at the OHMSETT test facility in New Jersey demonstrate that under specific viewing conditions, a single polarization satellite SAR image can record a signal variance between thick stable emulsions and non-emulsified oil. During a series of field campaigns in the Gulf of Mexico with in situ measurements of oil thickness, multiple satellite data were obtained including fully polarimetric C-band SAR imagery from RADARSAT-2 and multispectral imagery from ASTER and WorldView-2. One campaign included the airborne polarimetric UAVSAR L-band sensor. An oil/emulsion thickness classification product was generated based on RADARSAT-2 polarimetric imagery using entropy and the damping ratio derivations. Herein, we present the classification methods to generate oil thickness products from SAR, validated by sea-truth observations, the multispectral imagery, and the UAVSAR data. We tested the ability to deliver these products with minimum latency to responding vessels via NOAA. During field operations in the Gulf of Mexico, a satellite SAR-based product of oil delineation by relative thickness was delivered to a responding vessel 42 min after the RADARSAT-2 data acquisition. This proof-of-concept test using satellite SAR and multispectral imagery to detect emulsions and deliver a derived information product to a vessel in near-real-time points directly to methods for satellite-based assets to be used in the near future for oil spill tactical response operations

A review of the toxicology of oil in vertebrates:what we have learned following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, a number of government agencies, academic institutions, consultants, and nonprofit organizations conducted lab- and field-based research to understand the toxic effects of the oil. Lab testing was performed with a variety of fish, birds, turtles, and vertebrate cell lines (as well as invertebrates); field biologists conducted observations on fish, birds, turtles, and marine mammals; and epidemiologists carried out observational studies in humans. Eight years after the spill, scientists and resource managers held a workshop to summarize the similarities and differences in the effects of DWH oil on vertebrate taxa and to identify remaining gaps in our understanding of oil toxicity in wildlife and humans, building upon the cross-taxonomic synthesis initiated during the Natural Resource Damage Assessment. Across the studies, consistency was found in the types of toxic response observed in the different organisms. Impairment of stress responses and adrenal gland function, cardiotoxicity, immune system dysfunction, disruption of blood cells and their function, effects on locomotion, and oxidative damage were observed across taxa. This consistency suggests conservation in the mechanisms of action and disease pathogenesis. From a toxicological perspective, a logical progression of impacts was noted: from molecular and cellular effects that manifest as organ dysfunction, to systemic effects that compromise fitness, growth, reproductive potential, and survival. From a clinical perspective, adverse health effects from DWH oil spill exposure formed a suite of signs/symptomatic responses that at the highest doses/concentrations resulted in multi-organ system failure.</p