Frometa Janessy, DeLorenzo Marie E, Pisarski Emily C, Etnoyer Peter J
JHT, Inc., 219 Fort Johnson Rd., Charleston, SC, 29412, USA; NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, 219 Fort Johnson Rd., Charleston, SC, 29412, USA.
NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, 219 Fort Johnson Rd., Charleston, SC, 29412, USA.
Mar Pollut Bull. 2017 Sep 15;122(1-2):91-99. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.06.009. Epub 2017 Jun 27.
Benthic surveys of mesophotic reefs in the Gulf of Mexico post Deepwater Horizon (DWH) showed that Swiftia exserta octocorals exhibited significantly more injury than in years before the spill. To determine the vulnerability of S. exserta to oil and dispersants, 96h toxicity assays of surrogate DWH oil water-accommodated fractions (WAF), Corexit® 9500 dispersant, and the combination of both (CEWAF) were conducted in the laboratory. Fragment mortality occurred within 48h for some fragments in the dispersant-alone and oil-dispersant treatments, while the WAF group remained relatively unaffected. The 96h LC values were 70.27mg/L for Corexit-alone and 41.04mg/L for Corexit in CEWAF. This study provides new information on octocoral sensitivity to toxins, and indicates that combinations of oil and dispersants are more toxic to octocorals than exposure to oil alone. These results have important implications for the assessment of effects of the DWH spill on deep-water organisms.
“深水地平线”（DWH）事件后，对墨西哥湾中光层珊瑚礁进行的底栖生物调查显示，外露斯威夫特柳珊瑚（Swiftia exserta）所受损伤比漏油事件发生前几年显著增多。为确定外露斯威夫特柳珊瑚对石油和分散剂的脆弱性，在实验室中对外露斯威夫特柳珊瑚进行了96小时的毒性试验，试验对象包括DWH石油水相组分（WAF）替代物、Corexit® 9500分散剂以及两者的混合物（CEWAF）。在单独使用分散剂和石油 - 分散剂处理组中，部分珊瑚碎片在48小时内出现死亡，而WAF组相对未受影响。单独使用Corexit时96小时半数致死浓度（LC）值为70.27mg/L，在CEWAF中Corexit的96小时半数致死浓度值为41.04mg/L。本研究提供了关于柳珊瑚对毒素敏感性的新信息，并表明石油和分散剂的混合物对柳珊瑚的毒性比单独接触石油更大。这些结果对评估DWH漏油事件对深水生物的影响具有重要意义。
