Disturbance and Recovery of Salt Marsh Arthropod Communities following BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Oil spills represent a major environmental threat to coastal wetlands, which provide a variety of critical ecosystem services to humanity. The U.S. Gulf of Mexico is a hub of oil and gas exploration activities that historically have impacted intertidal habitats such as salt marsh. Following the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, we sampled the terrestrial arthropod community and marine invertebrates found in stands of Spartina alterniflora, the most abundant plant in coastal salt marshes. Sampling occurred in 2010 as oil was washing ashore and a year later in 2011. In 2010, intertidal crabs and terrestrial arthropods (insects and spiders) were suppressed by oil exposure even in seemingly unaffected stands of plants; however, Littoraria snails were unaffected. One year later, crab and arthropods had largely recovered. Our work is the first attempt that we know of assessing vulnerability of the salt marsh arthropod community to oil exposure, and it suggests that arthropods are both quite vulnerable to oil exposure and quite resilient, able to recover from exposure within a year if host plants remain healthy.

溢油事件对滨海湿地构成重大环境威胁，而滨海湿地可为人类提供多种关键生态系统服务。美国墨西哥湾是油气勘探活动的核心区域，此类活动历来会对盐沼等潮间带生境造成影响。在英国石油公司（BP）深水地平线漏油事件发生后，我们对滨海盐沼优势物种互花米草（Spartina alterniflora）群落中的陆生节肢动物群落与海洋无脊椎动物进行了采样。采样工作于2010年（当时原油正被冲至岸边）与次年2011年开展。2010年，即便在看似未受原油影响的互花米草群落中，潮间带蟹类与陆生节肢动物（昆虫及蜘蛛）仍因原油暴露受到种群抑制；但滨螺属（Littoraria）螺类未受影响。时隔一年后的2011年，蟹类与节肢动物种群已基本恢复。据我们所知，本研究是首次评估盐沼节肢动物群落对原油暴露的脆弱性的尝试，结果表明节肢动物对原油暴露既具有较高脆弱性，也具备较强恢复力——若宿主植物保持健康，其可在一年内从原油暴露的影响中恢复。