355
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
S. A. Murawski et al. (eds.), Deep Oil Spills,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11605-7_22
Chapter 22
Deep-Sea Benthic Faunal Impacts
and Community Evolution Before, During,
and After the Deepwater Horizon Event
Paul A. Montagna and Fanny Girard
Abstract Oil from the Deepwater Horizon blowout reached the seafloor through
deep-sea plumes and sedimentation of oil and oiled marine snow. This oil caused
extensive damage over wide areas to both hard-bottom and soft-bottom communities. The most sensitive bioindicators were deep-sea planar octocorals for hardbottoms and macrofauna and meiofauna diversity and taxa richness for soft-bottoms.
Both hard-bottom and soft-bottom communities are very vulnerable to deep-sea oil
spills. Deep-sea corals grow slowly and thus have extremely slow recovery rates.
Four years after the spill, there was no recovery of the lost biodiversity of the macrofauna and meiofauna. Future research should be focused toward recovery and
restoration. For hard-bottoms this could take the form of restoration projects. For
soft-bottoms the restoration strategy could be “restoration in place” because fresh
sediments, which fall to the seafloor continuously, can cap the contaminated sediments over time. Both strategies require monitoring to ensure desired outcomes are
achieved.
Keywords Biodiversity · Deep-sea coral · Infauna · Macrofauna · Meiofauna · Oil
spill · Sediments
P. A. Montagna (*)
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies,
Corpus Christi, TX, USA
e-mail: Paul.Montagna@tamucc.edu
F. Girard
Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer (Ifremer), Département Etude
des Ecosystèmes Profonds, Laboratoire Environnement Profond, Centre de Brest,
Plouzané, France
e-mail: Fanny.Girard@ifremer.fr
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
S. A. Murawski et al. (eds.), Deep Oil Spills,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11605-7_22
Chapter 22
Deep-Sea Benthic Faunal Impacts
and Community Evolution Before, During,
and After the Deepwater Horizon Event
Paul A. Montagna and Fanny Girard
Abstract Oil from the Deepwater Horizon blowout reached the seafloor through
deep-sea plumes and sedimentation of oil and oiled marine snow. This oil caused
extensive damage over wide areas to both hard-bottom and soft-bottom communities. The most sensitive bioindicators were deep-sea planar octocorals for hardbottoms and macrofauna and meiofauna diversity and taxa richness for soft-bottoms.
Both hard-bottom and soft-bottom communities are very vulnerable to deep-sea oil
spills. Deep-sea corals grow slowly and thus have extremely slow recovery rates.
Four years after the spill, there was no recovery of the lost biodiversity of the macrofauna and meiofauna. Future research should be focused toward recovery and
restoration. For hard-bottoms this could take the form of restoration projects. For
soft-bottoms the restoration strategy could be “restoration in place” because fresh
sediments, which fall to the seafloor continuously, can cap the contaminated sediments over time. Both strategies require monitoring to ensure desired outcomes are
achieved.
Keywords Biodiversity · Deep-sea coral · Infauna · Macrofauna · Meiofauna · Oil
spill · Sediments
P. A. Montagna (*)
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies,
Corpus Christi, TX, USA
e-mail: Paul.Montagna@tamucc.edu
F. Girard
Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer (Ifremer), Département Etude
des Ecosystèmes Profonds, Laboratoire Environnement Profond, Centre de Brest,
Plouzané, France
e-mail: Fanny.Girard@ifremer.fr