The tarballs on Texas beaches following the 2014 Texas City "Y" Spill: Modeling, chemical, and microbiological studies.
We modeled the transport of oil, source-fingerprinted 44 tarball samples from Galveston Island (GV) and Mustang Island (MT), and determined the hydrocarbon and bacterial community composition of these tarballs following the 2014 Texas City "Y" Oil Spill (TCY). Transport modeling indicated that the tarballs arrived in MT before the samples were collected. Source-fingerprinting confirmed that the tarballs collected from GV and MT, 6d and 11d after the TCY, respectively, originated from the spill. Tarballs from GV showed 21% depletion of alkanes, mainly C9-C17, and 55% depletion of PAHs mainly naphthalenes, and dominated by alkane-degrading Alcanivorax and Psychrobacter. Samples from MT were depleted of 24% alkanes and 63% PAHs, and contained mainly of PAH-degrading Pseudoalteromonas. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to relate oil transport, tarball source-fingerprinting, chemistry, and microbiology, which provides insights on the fate of oil in the northern Gulf of Mexico.
Marine Science Institute, University of Texas at Austin, 750 Channel View Drive, Port Aransas, TX 78373, United States. Electronic address: hernando.bacosa@utexas.edu.
Hernando P
HP
Bacosa
Department of Oceanography, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, United States.
Kristen M
KM
Thyng
Marine Science Institute, University of Texas at Austin, 750 Channel View Drive, Port Aransas, TX 78373, United States.
Stefanie
S
Plunkett
Marine Science Institute, University of Texas at Austin, 750 Channel View Drive, Port Aransas, TX 78373, United States.
Deana L
DL
Erdner
Marine Science Institute, University of Texas at Austin, 750 Channel View Drive, Port Aransas, TX 78373, United States.
Zhanfei
Z
Liu
D060851:Gulf of America; D006838:Hydrocarbons; D008956:Models, Chemical; D010578:Petroleum; D059392:Petroleum Pollution; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons; D013781:Texas; D014871:Water Microbiology
D006838:Hydrocarbons; D010578:Petroleum; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
Bacterial community; Hydrocarbon composition; Pseudoalteromonas; Tarballs; Texas City “Y” Oil Spill; Transport model