Halomonas species are recognized for producing exopolysaccharides (EPS) exhibiting amphiphilic properties that allow these macromolecules to interface with hydrophobic substrates, such as hydrocarbons. There remains a paucity of knowledge, however, on the potential of Halomonas EPS to influence the biodegradation of hydrocarbons. In this study, the well-characterized amphiphilic EPS produced by...

BACKGROUND Although public concern has focused on the environmental impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the public health impact on a broad range of coastal communities is minimally known. OBJECTIVE We sought to determine the acute level of distress (depression, anxiety), mechanisms of adjustment (coping, resilience), and perceived risk in a community indirectly impacted by the oil spi...

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill triggered a complex cascade of microbial responses that reshaped the dynamics of heterotrophic carbon degradation and the turnover of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in oil contaminated waters. Our results from 21-day laboratory incubations in rotating glass bottles (roller bottles) demonstrate that microbial dynamics and carbon flux in oil-contaminated surface wa...

The risk of oil spills is a major environmental issue in the siting of proposed coastal refineries, oil terminals, deepwater ports, and in the leasing of offshore lands for oil exploration and development. As with any kind of risk, oil spill risk assessment is inherently judgmental and no analytic method can eliminate the need for judgment. This paper compares representative examples of oil spi...

The Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit (MODU), leased to BP (previously British Petroleum, now simply “BP”, with the previously-used promotional tagline of “beyond petroleum”) suffered an explosive “blowout” on April 20, 2010 which resulted in what is now the largest offshore oil spill in United States (U.S.) history, and currently estimated to be at least the seco...

Oil spillage has been a major environmental problem in Nigeria for more than two decades. Between 1976 and 1996 Nigeria recorded a total of 4835 oil spill incidents, which resulted in a loss of 1.9 million barrels of oil into the environment. From 2006 to 2008 reported oil spill occurrences amounted to 1260, where 40,000 barrels of oil from Mobil platform off the Akwa Ibom coast were spilt, cau...

This chapter gives credence to the introduction of optimal control theory into oil spill modeling and develops an optimization process that will aid in the effective decisionmaking in marine oil spill management. The purpose of the optimal control theory is to determine the control policy that will optimize (maximize or minimize) a specific per‐ formance criterion, subject to the constraints im...

This study has demonstrated a design tool for oil spill detection in SAR satellite data using optimization of Entropy based Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm (E-MMGA) based on Pareto optimal solutions. The study also shows that optimization entropy based on Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm provides an accurate pattern of oil slick in SAR data. This is shown by 85% for oil spill, 10% ...

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest ever accidental release of oil into marine waters, affected hundreds of miles of US northern Gulf of Mexico coastline that is important habitat for migratory shorebirds. Shorebirds are particularly susceptible to oil contamination because of their subsurface probe-foraging behavior and reliance on intertidal habitat. More than one million migrat...

We investigated the effects of a warmer climate, and seasonal trends, on the fate of oil spilled in the Arctic. Three well blowout scenarios, two shipping accidents and a pipeline rupture were considered. We used ensembles of numerical simulations, using the OSCAR oil spill model, with environmental data for the periods 2009-2012 and 2050-2053 (representing a warmer future) as inputs to the mod...