RAPID: Effects of PAH Exposure on Aquatic Plant Community Structure, Productivity, and Resilience as a Result of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

University Of South Alabama, Mobile AL

Investigators

Abstract

The Mobile-Tensaw Delta in Alabama represents a sensitive, integrated ecosystem where terrestrial, freshwater, and coastal communities converge to create a transition zone, characterized by high productivity and biological diversity, making it ecologically, economically, and recreationally important to the Gulf region. This project investigates the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure on native aquatic plant communities in this biodiversity hotspot. The investigators have 9 years of data on plant community structure in hand, and they will use these data in a Before-After-Control-Impact design to determine how plant productivity and survivorship are influenced by the anticipated gradient of exposure to PAHs; differences in early successional patterns and community resilience across this gradient; and the presence of thresholds in exposure beyond which plant communities fail to recover. The resulting data will be used to predict how large-scale anthropogenic insults and natural environmental variation affect aquatic plant communities over varying spatial and temporal scales. The results of this project will provide fundamental insight into the broader impacts of environmental degradation and habitat loss, serving as the foundation for later work concerning both basic and applied aspects of the plant community response, and the underlying mechanisms of resilience and susceptibility to stress. Over the course of this one-year project, one graduate and one undergraduate student will receive training in plant taxonomy, physiology, community ecology, and the application of multivariate statistics. Finally, data generated from this research will be an important contribution to plant community conservation and land management.