A persistent oxygen anomaly reveals the fate of spilled methane in the deep Gulf of Mexico. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Methane was the most abundant hydrocarbon released during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Beyond relevancy to this anthropogenic event, this methane release simulates a rapid and relatively short-term natural release from hydrates into deep water. Based on methane and oxygen distributions measured at 207 stations throughout the affected region, we find that within ~120 days from the onset of release ~3.0 10(10) to 3.9 10(10) moles of oxygen were respired, primarily by methanotrophs, and left behind a residual microbial community containing methanotrophic bacteria. We suggest that a vigorous deepwater bacterial bloom respired nearly all the released methane within this time, and that by analogy, large-scale releases of methane from hydrate in the deep ocean are likely to be met by a similarly rapid methanotrophic response.

published proceedings

  • Science

altmetric score

  • 87.626

author list (cited authors)

  • Kessler, J. D., Valentine, D. L., Redmond, M. C., Du, M., Chan, E. W., Mendes, S. D., ... Weber, T. C.

citation count

  • 369

complete list of authors

  • Kessler, John D||Valentine, David L||Redmond, Molly C||Du, Mengran||Chan, Eric W||Mendes, Stephanie D||Quiroz, Erik W||Villanueva, Christie J||Shusta, Stephani S||Werra, Lindsay M||Yvon-Lewis, Shari A||Weber, Thomas C

publication date

  • January 2011