Even though it is no longer the hottest topic in the news, people are still living with the effects of the BP oil spill. The spill still lingers in the minds of scientists who research and study the results it has had on the Gulf Coast.
“The state was provided with $5 million by BP, which is the first of a larger sum of money to come to study the effects of the oil spill on the Gulf,” said Joe Benson, vice president for research. “The researchers at UA received a total of a little over $800,000.”
The teams of researchers are divided into four groups focusing on different areas. The areas include ecosystem assessment, physical distribution relating to the contaminants under the action of ocean currents and tropical storms, environmental effects of the oil-dispersant system on the seafloor and the chemical evolution and biological degradation of the oil-dispersant systems, Benson said.
Benson said his job was to bring the opportunity to the faculty, who then began to put together a Gulf Coast working group that completed and submitted their proposals.
The researchers come from various related departments including geology, chemistry and biological sciences.
“The projects the faculty will be working on will be research-oriented projects,” Benson said.
Other institutions, such as Jacksonville State University, the University of Alabama in Huntsville, the University of Alabama in Birmingham and Tuskegee University, received these funds from BP to research the same four focus areas.
Benson said he hopes these funds will give scientists a much better understanding of the nature and impact of the spill.
Fred Andrus, an associate professor of geology, is among the 18 professors who received funds for the research, and he is a member of the team that will examine some of the environmental effects, including the result the spill had on organisms. Andrus said he wants their research to bring something positive out of a bad situation.
Among other things, Andrus and his team members will be studying oyster beds, with a particular focus on concerns seafood consumers may have had after the spill.
“There are many organisms that live in oyster beds, and we will study the skeletons of the organisms to see the impact of the spill,” he said.
In observing the shells of the oysters, he said, scientists will be able to tell if their growth rate has changed and whether they have any trapped components of oil.
Some consumers may have also wondered whether the oil made it into the food chain.
“The oil is definitely being broken down by bacteria, but as of right now, we don’t know the effects further up the food web,” Andrus said.
“No one expected the oil spill, and it took us all by surprise,” he said. “Yet it was quite gratifying to see how scientists from different schools and with different skills came together on this issue.”
