Scenarios and Responses to Future Deep Oil Spills

Section IOverview.- 1 Introduction to the volume.- 2 Deep-water oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, and related global trends.- 3 Spilled oil composition and the natural carbon cycle: The true drivers of environmental fate and effects of oil spills.- Section IIGeological, Chemical, Ecological and Physical Oceanographic Settings and Baselines for Deep Oil Spills in the Gulf of Mexico.- 4 An overview of the geologic origins of hydrocarbons and production trends in the Gulf of Mexico.- 5Gulf of Mexico (GoM) bottom sediments and depositional processes: A baseline for future oil spills.- 6Benthic faunal baselines in the Gulf of Mexico: A precursor to evaluate future impacts.- 7 Linking abiotic variables with macrofaunal and meiofaunal abundance and community.- 8 The asphalt ecosystem of the southern Gulf of Mexico: abyssal habitats across space and time.- 9 Geochemical and faunal characterization in the sediments off the Cuban north and northwest coast.- 10 Mapping isotopic and dissolved organic matter baselines in waters and sediments of Gulf of Mexico.- 11Toward a predictive understanding of the benthic microbial community response to oiling on the northern Gulf of Mexico coast.- 12Combining isoscapes with tissue-specific isotope records to re-create the geographic histories of fish.- 13 The utility of stable and radio isotopes in fish tissues as biogeochemical tracers of marine oil spill food web effects.- 14 Modernizing protocols for aquatic toxicity testing of oil and dispersant.- 15 Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon baselines in Gulf of Mexico fishes.- 16Case Study: Using a combined laboratory, field, and modeling approach to assess oil spill impacts.- Section III Simulations of Future Deep Spills.- 17 Testing the effect of MOSSFA (Marine Oil Snow Sedimentation and Flocculent Accumulation) events in benthic microcosms.- 18Physical processes influencing the sedimentation and lateral transport of MOSSFA in the NE Gulf of Mexico.- 19 Simulating deep oil spills

Steven A. Murawski is a Professor and Downtown Partnership/Peter Betzer Endowed Chair of Biological Oceanography at the University of South Florida.  Murawski currently serves as director of the C-IMAGE consortium conducting interdisciplinary oil-spill related research.  Prior to his current position, he was Director of Scientific Programs and Chief Science Advisor for the US National Marine Fisheries Service.  He is a fishery biologist with interests in population and ecosystem ecology and dynamics.  He has published nearly 200 journal articles, technical reports and book chapters.  Awards include the Department of Commerce Gold Medal.  His Ph.D. is in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Cameron H. Ainsworth is an Associate Professor of Fisheries Science at the University of South Florida.  He uses 'end-to-end' models and other means to study anthropogenic influences on marine ecosystems.  His recent work has considered fishing, climate change and oil spills as drivers of ecosystem change.  He keeps an applied focus, working with NOAA and state fisheries managers on common research themes and serving as a member of the Ecosystem Science and Statistical Committee of the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council.  He has published over 100 peer-reviewed and technical articles.  Awards include a Sloan Research Fellowship for early career scientists and an Outstanding Faculty Award.  His Ph.D. is in Resource Management and Environmental Studies from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
Sherryl Gilbert is the assistant director of the C-IMAGE consortium operated at the College of Marine Science at the University of South Florida.  Gilbert has served as the center's operational core since 2011, coordinating research and management efforts.  Prior to 2011, Gilbert was the technicaldirector of the Ocean Modeling and Prediction Laboratory