Interannual recruitment dynamics for resident and transient marsh species: evidence for a lack of impact by the Macondo oil spill.

ABSTRACT: The emulsification of oil at the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) well head relegated a large proportion of resultant hydrocarbon plumes to the deep sea, facilitated the incorporation of oil droplets into microbial and planktonic food web, and limited the severity of direct, wetland oiling to coastal Louisiana. Nevertheless, many transient fish and invertebrate species rely on offshore surface waters for egg and larval transport before settling in coastal habitats, thereby potentially impacting the recruitment of transient species to coastal nursery habitats quite distant from the well site. We compared the utilization of salt-marsh habitats by transient and resident nekton before and after the DWH accident using data obtained from an oyster reef restoration project in coastal Alabama. Our sampling

SUBMITTER: Moody RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3596379 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature