A recent publication from Wageningen University in the Netherlands performed a meta-analysis of large oil spills to determine if a MOSSFA brought oil to the sea floor in other oil spills.<\/p>\n
During Deepwater Horizon, 9.1% of oil from the well head settled on the ocean floor and was in constant contact with sediments. This roughly 10% made it to the seafloor was through mucus-rich marine snow sinking to the seafloor and collecting oil droplets and clay materials during its descent. When this marine snow carries oil to the seafloor it is known as a MOSSFA event (Marine Oil Snow Sedimentation and Flocculent Accumulation).<\/p>\n
This paper analyzed data from 52 other oil spills to see if a MOSSFA would have occurred in other spills using these conditions: dispersant application, clay materials in the water (originating from the seafloor), and presence of mucus-like substances from oil-degrading bacteria and phytoplankton.<\/p>\n
Using the Deepwater Horizon and Ixtoc-I events as a baseline for MOSSFA conditions, the authors estimate a MOSSFA in 15 of 52 studied spills<\/p>\n
The authors recommend MOSSFA be considered in the overall environmental efforts following a spill. Does oil on the seafloor contribute to similar habitat loss as oil on coastlines?<\/p>\n
The full article is available at the link below:<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0025326X15005275<\/a><\/p>\n Citation:<\/p>\n Sophie M. Vonk, David J. Hollander, AlberTinka J. Murk, Was the extreme and wide-spread marine oil-snow sedimentation and flocculent accumulation (MOSSFA) event during the Deepwater Horizon blow-out unique?, Marine Pollution Bulletin, Available online 8 September 2015, ISSN 0025-326X,\u00a0http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1016\/j.marpolbul.2015.08.023<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A recent publication from Wageningen University in the Netherlands performed a meta-analysis of large oil spills to determine if a MOSSFA brought oil to the sea floor in other oil spills. During Deepwater Horizon, 9.1% of oil from the well…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[284,188],"tags":[231],"class_list":["post-2559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mossfa","category-task-3-publications","tag-mossfa-d36","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marine.usf.edu\/c-image\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marine.usf.edu\/c-image\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marine.usf.edu\/c-image\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marine.usf.edu\/c-image\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marine.usf.edu\/c-image\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2559"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.marine.usf.edu\/c-image\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4911,"href":"https:\/\/www.marine.usf.edu\/c-image\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559\/revisions\/4911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marine.usf.edu\/c-image\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marine.usf.edu\/c-image\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marine.usf.edu\/c-image\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marine.usf.edu\/c-image\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}