Ocean Sciences Centre, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland A1C 5S7, Canada; email:
Department of Environmental Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA; email:
Ann Rev Mar Sci. 2021 Jan;13:109-136. doi: 10.1146/annurev-marine-032320-095153. Epub 2020 Sep 21.
The oil spill was the largest, longest-lasting, and deepest oil accident to date in US waters. As oil and natural gas jetted from release points at 1,500-m depth in the northern Gulf of Mexico, entrainment of the surrounding ocean water into a buoyant plume, rich in soluble hydrocarbons and dispersed microdroplets of oil, created a deep (1,000-m) intrusion layer. Larger droplets of liquid oil rose to the surface, forming a slick of mostly insoluble, hydrocarbon-type compounds. A variety of physical, chemical, and biological mechanisms helped to transform, remove, and redisperse the oil and gas that was released. Biodegradation removed up to 60% of the oil in the intrusion layer but was less efficient in the surface slick, due to nutrient limitation. Photochemical processes altered up to 50% (by mass) of the floating oil. The surface oil expression changed daily due to wind and currents, whereas the intrusion layer flowed southwestward. A portion of the weathered surface oil stranded along shorelines. Oil from both surface and intrusion layers were deposited onto the seafloor via sinking marine oil snow. The biodegradation rates of stranded or sedimented oil were low, with resuspension and redistribution transiently increasing biodegradation. The subsequent research efforts increased our understanding of the fate of spilled oil immensely, with novel insights focusing on the importance of photooxidation, the microbial communities driving biodegradation, and the formation of marine oil snow that transports oil to the seafloor.
这次石油泄漏是美国海域迄今为止规模最大、持续时间最长、深度最深的石油事故。当石油和天然气从墨西哥湾北部 1500 米深的释放点喷出时，周围海水被卷入浮力羽流中，富含可溶性碳氢化合物和分散的油微滴，形成了一个深（1000 米）的侵入层。较大的液态油滴上升到表面，形成一层主要由不溶性碳氢化合物组成的浮油。各种物理、化学和生物机制有助于转化、去除和重新分散释放的石油和天然气。生物降解去除了侵入层中多达 60%的石油，但在表面浮油中效率较低，因为营养物质有限。光化学过程改变了多达 50%（按质量计）的浮油。由于风和海流的作用，表面油的表现每天都在变化，而侵入层则向西南流动。一部分风化的表面油被困在海岸线附近。来自表面和侵入层的油通过下沉的海洋油雪沉积到海底。搁浅或沉淀的油的生物降解率较低，再悬浮和再分布会短暂增加生物降解。随后的研究工作极大地提高了我们对溢油命运的理解，新的见解集中在光氧化、驱动生物降解的微生物群落以及将油运送到海底的海洋油雪形成的重要性上。
