The Gulf oil spill makes ecologist Nicole Heller feel "depressed and uncertain." Thankfully, these are not the only thoughts she leaves her readers with at the Climate Central blog.
No, Heller also goes on to explain the more pernicious and subtle ecosystem impacts that biologists are just starting to understand. Researchers like Dr. Erin Gray of Tulane University are finding that the oil spilled today could very well live on in generations of spawn to come. Gray is interested in Blue Crabs, in particular, which are a $40 million industry for Gulf fishermen. She studies population dynamics as they move from tiny larvae born in the open waters to fully grown crabs that inhabit estuaries. And her initial findings are disturbing to say the least.
Female blue crabs lay their eggs in the open water which then migrate inland after a couple months in later stages, writes Heller. It just so happens that breeding season in late spring and summer corresponds exactly with the timeline of the oil spill. That means the crabs will be traveling directly through the wake of the oil geyser.
That's not all. Once again, it also appears that the chemical dispersants used to break up the oil slick on the surface of the water are doing more harm than good. Gray believes she has identified tiny specks of oil--the kind created by using dispersants--inside the tissue of post-larval crabs. Gray is not a toxicologist and so is unsure what the ultimate effects will be on the Blue Crab. But her discovery points to yet another example of the disaster being much worse than we thought. It's not just the immediate damage--the oil-drenched birds and tar-balled beaches. It's the generations of aquatic life and wetland vegetation, things visible and invisible, that will be poisoned for many years to come with unknown influences on the environment.
Mother Nature is resilient, but even she has a breaking point. Heller and Gray have reminded us that if we haven't reached it yet, we will very soon.
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