Oil Spill Bioremediation Quiz

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What percentage of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was available for biodegradation?

Explain how you arrived at your answer. (Hint: look for the categories with *)

When surface skimming and burning is used to remove spilled oil, you can see the results of your efforts. However, subsurface oil being degraded by microbes is not something you can readily see. Scientists must continuously sample water and sediments to find evidence of the biodegradation.

In the simulation you conducted, how did you know that biodegradation was occurring?

What evidence can scientists look for to determine if oil is being naturally degraded by microbes?

Describe at least one piece of evidence that they might use.

Scientists discovered a lot of new things about the relationship between microbes and deepwater oil. In fact, they were thrilled to discover new oil-eating species of bacteria, and were even able to map their genomes.

How could learning more about the microbes help scientists deal with future spills?

Oil cleanup is only one aspect of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DHOS) response. The effects of the oil on the environment is another area of active study. Five species of endangered sea turtles live in the areas impacted by the DHOS. The Natural Resources Damage Assessment (NRDA) estimated that the DHOS and related response activities killed approximately 35,000 hatchling sea turtles, between 55,000 and 160,000 small juvenile sea turtles, and between 4,900 and 7,600 large juvenile and adult sea turtles.

Do some research to find the common and scientific names of the five sea turtle species affected by the DHOS. The first one has been done for you.

1. Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) – scientific name is two words, first one is capitalized, both in italics.

Why did so many turtles die as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DHOS)?

BP, the company responsible for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DHOS), will pay up to $8.8 billion as part of a natural resources damage assessment settlement.

If you were able to allocate money from the settlement to aid in sea turtle restoration, how would you use it?

If you could do this entire lab over again, what would you change?

If you could do this entire lab over again, what would you keep the same?