Potential influence of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on phytoplankton primary productivity in the northern Gulf of Mexico

Nine years after the Deepwater Horizon (DwH) oil spill (20 April–15 July 2010), the recovery of primary productivity at the ocean surface remains to be investigated. Here, we used the normalized fluorescence line height (nFLH) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer as an indicator of chlorophyll a concentration (Chl a ). First, from the spatiotemporal variations of nFLH between 2001 and 2017, a reduction of nFLH after the DwH oil spill was observed (for a relatively long period, from 2011 to 2014). Second, a stepwise multiple regression model was used to examine which of the following environmental factors could explain the annual variations in nFLH: river discharge, total nitrogen load, total phosphorus load, photosynthetically available radiation, sea surface temperature and wind speed. Results show that river discharge, sea surface temperature and wind speed are the primary factors that regulated the annual nFLH variations in the DwH area during the pre-spill years. In contrast, this same model could not explain the reduction of nFLH for the four years after the DwH oil spill. After 2015, nFLH appears to have resumed to the pre-spill concentrations. Here we suggest that the nFLH reduction between 2011 and 2014 could have originated from the DwH oil spill, although the exact mechanism is yet to be determined

Chlorophyll a · Deepwater horizon · Discharge · Drainage basin · Moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer · Nutrient · Oil spill · Photosynthesis · Photosynthetically active radiation · Phytoplankton · Productivity · Satellite · Sea surface temperature · Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics · Environmental Science · Marine and coastal ecosystems · Oil Spill Detection and Mitigation · Ecology · Geology · Oceanography

• The Exxon Valdez and BP Oil Spills

  Open Access•Duane A Gill, J Steven Picou et al.•American Behavioral Scientist•2012

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