florida state university: coastwatch · florida state university: coastwatch ian macdonald, pi....

FIO Block Grants - Final Report

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FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY: COASTWATCH

Ian MacDonald, PI.

Professor

Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science,

117 N. Woodward Avenue

Florida State University

Tallahassee, Fl 32306-4320

TEL: (850) 644-5498

FAX: -2820

[email protected]

Richard A. Snyder, Co-PI

Professor and Director

Center for Environmental Diagnostics and

Bioremediation (CEDB) http://uwf.edu/cedb/

University of West Florida

11000 University Parkway

Pensacola, FL 32514

TEL: (850) 474-2806

FAX: -3130

[email protected]

SCIENCE ACTIVITIES

1) General Summary

The FSU team and its collaborating group at University of West Florida have achieved two

major deliverables: 1) Sea-level sampling and analysis of the oil on the ocean bottom and in the

water column offshore the Florida panhandle to provide regular ground truth for the remote

sensing and NRDA level demonstration of oil properties, distribution, and impact. 2)

Compilation of comprehensive remote sensing database of satellite and aerial imaging of the

Deepwater Horizon Discharge. In addition, project team members have collaborated with

investigators from the FSU Center for Ocean-Atmosphere Prediction Studies (COAPS) to

develop a preliminary model of oil dispersion on the ocean surface. The FSU team also

collaborated with the USGS group of Dr. Ken Sulak (Gainsville, FL) to survey damaged corals

in mesophotic reef setting.

2) Results and scientific highlights

Field Sampling Coast Watch Stations

This project established sampling transects with stations every 5 miles from the coastline out

across the West Florida Panhandle Bight (WFPB) continental shelf to provide time series data on

hydrographic and biological features of the WFPB, and any lingering oil contamination

upwelling out of DeSoto canyon or deposited on the bottom across the shelf (Figures 1, 5, 6).

These sites were visited for sampling on 12 separate cruises. The monitoring detected trace

levels of hydrocarbons in water and sediment samples, but did not document PAH concentrations

above chronic exposure hazard limits (Figures 8, 9, 10).

Field Sampling Mesophotic Reefs

- We visited known coral communities on the outer shelf including Madison Swanson,

Rough Tongue Reef, and Alabama Alps and surveyed fish and sessile fauna for possible

damages resulting from oil (Figure 7)

- We documented numerous examples of damaged soft corals (sea fans) at Alabama Alps

Reef and Rough Tongue Reef, but saw no damages in the Madison Swanson Marine

Reserve (Figures 3, 4).


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- We established six reference stations at each of the two sites so that coral recovery could

be monitored in the future.

Remote sensing

- We adapted a previously developed image processing algorithm called TCNNA which

processes satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data (Figure 2, 5).

- We compiled aerial and sea-level photography collected during the spill. Photographs

were georeferenced and are available in a geodatabase.

- A geodatabase of response operations has been constructed. This geodatabase contains

shapefiles of dispersant applications and burning operations that are used for the remote

sensing interpretation of the satellite images.

- We analyzed the signal response of oil in different remote sensing platforms. A

comparison of oil imaged features in optical satellite imagery and SAR has been carried

out. We are currently developing an algorithm to merge optical and SAR data to extract

contour outlines of layers of oil with different thickness.

- A detailed analysis of the natural hydrocarbon seepage in the macondo area has been

carried out. 76 High resolution SAR images were collected in the fall of 2011, the

prescence of 19 previously detected natural seep sites was confirmed, and 2 new sites

were added to our seep sites database.

3) Cruises & field expeditions

Ship or Platform Name

Chief Scientist Objectives Dates

R/V Bellows Snyder Water column and sediment sampling on Florida Panhandle Bight Shelf and head of DeSoto Canyon: Physcial, Biological and Chemical data collection

22-25 Jan 2011

R/V Bellows Snyder Same 21-24 Feb 2011

R/V Weatherbird II Snyder Same 21-24 Mar 2011

R/V Weatherbird II Snyder Same 21-24 May 2011

R/V Weatherbird II Snyder Same 12-15 Jun 2011

R/V Bellows Snyder Same 25-28 Aug 2011

M/V Holiday Chouest Sulak/MacDonald Mesophotic Reef Damage assessment 14-24 Sept 2011

R/V Bellows Snyder Same 28-30 Sept 2011

R/V Bellows Snyder Same 19-22 Oct 2011

R/V Weatherbird II MacDonald Benthic camera survey, DeSoto canyon 16-19 Nov 2011

R/V Weatherbird II Snyder Same 13-6 Dec 2011

R/V Weatherbird II Jeffrey Same 19-22 Feb 2012

R/V Bellows Snyder Same 17-20 Mar 2012

R/V Bellows Snyder Same 5-7 May 2012

4) Peer-reviewed publications, if planned (Note: a special section will focus on student and

post-doctoral publications)

Snyder, R.A., M. Ederington-Hagy, F. Hileman, J. Moss, L. Amick, R. Carruth, M. Gaona,

and J. Marks. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon concentrations across the Florida Panhandle

Bight Shelf after the BP MC 252 well failure. Estuaries and Coasts (in preparation).


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Snyder, R.A., M. Ederington-Hagy, W.H. Jeffrey, and I. MacDonald. Impacts to deep

benthos from the BP MC252 well failure: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon concentrations in

sediments and damage to deep water corals. ES&T

5) Presentations and posters

Title Presenter Authors Meeting or Audience Abstract

published (Y/N)

Date

Remote sensing

overview of BP oil

discharge from

satellite SAR data

Garcia-

Pineda

Oscar Garcia-Pineda;

Ian R. MacDonald;

Steve Moorey;

AGU Fall Meeting

2011, San

Francisco

Y 12/5/2011

Polycyclic aromatic

hydrocarbon

concentrations

across the Florida

Panhandle Bight

Shelf after the BP

MC 252 well failure

Snyder Richard A. Snyder,

Melissa Ederington-

Hagy, Fredrick

Hileman, Joseph

Moss, Lauren Amick,

Rebecca Carruth,

Marie Gaona, and Joel

Marks

Coastal and

Estuarine Research

Federation

yes Nov 2011

Natural and

Unnatural oil in the

Gulf of Mexico

MacDonald MacDonald, I.R.

Garcia-Pineda, O.

Morey, S.

AGU Fall Meeting,

2011, San

Francisco

Y 12/5/2011

Remote Sensing

Overview Of Bp Oil

Discharge From

Satellite Sar Data

Garcia-

Pineda

Garcia-Pineda,

Oscar; MacDonald,

Ian; Morey, Steve.

Ocean Sciences

Meeting. Salt Lake

City

Y 2/20-

25/2012

Polycyclic aromatic

hydrocarbon

concentrations

across the Florida

Panhandle Bight

Shelf after the BP

MC 252 well

failure.

Snyder Richard A. Snyder,

Wade Jeffrey, Melissa

Ederington-Hagy,

Fredrick Hileman,

Joseph Moss, Lauren

Amick, Rebecca

Carruth, Marie Gaona,

and Joel Marks.

Gulf of Mexico:

Oil spill &

Ecosystem Science

Conference, New

Orleans, Louisiana

y January

21-23,

2013

A time series

hydrographic dataset

for the northeastern

Gulf of Mexico

Tominack Sarah Tominack,

Marine Gaona, Jesse

Rosenbalm, Chelsea

Hester, Joseph Moss,

Wade Jeffrey and

Richard Snyder.

Gulf of Mexico:

Oil spill &

Ecosystem Science

Conference, New

Orleans, Louisiana

y January

21-23,

2013


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6) Other products or deliverables

At www.sarsea.org, we developed a section titled “Oil Spill Monitoring”. This section

contained daily monitoring analysis during and after the spill. Here we make available to the

research community a catalog of shapefiles from our satellite image processing and also

ancillary data.

7) Data:

We downloaded, analyzed and processed 486 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images

collected during the spill. A geodatabase of this catalog of images it is been posted at

www.sarsea.org

http://www.sarsea.org/


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Site locations for COASTWATCH monitoring are as follows:

Pensacola Bay

Station ID Latitude N Longitude W Depth m Sediment type

P1 30 15 87 15 18 Sand

P2 30 10 87 15 22 Sand

P3 30 05 87 15 33 Sand

P4 30 00 87 15 32 Sand

P5 29 55 87 15 48 Sand + shell

P6 29 50 87 15 81 Sand

P7 29 45 87 15 152 Mud

P8 29 35 87 15 289 Mud

P9 29 25 87 15 478 Mud

Destin-Choctawhatchee Bay


C1 30 20 86 40 25 Sand

C2 30 15 86 40 25 Sand

C3 30 10 86 40 30 Sand

C4 30 05 86 40 51 Sand + shell

C5 30 00 86 40 95 Fine sandy mud

C6 29 55 86 40 112 Mud

C7 29 50 86 40 127 Mud

C8 29 40 86 40 185 Mud

C9 29 30 86 40 272 Mud

Panama City- St Andrews Bay


A1 30 08 85 46.5 18 Sand + shell

A2 30 04 85 49 21 Sand

A3 29 59.5 85 52 26 Sand + shell

A4 29 55 85 55.25 35 Sand + shell

A5 29 51.25 85 58 37 Fine Sand

A6 29 47 86 01 40 Fine Sand + shell

A7 29 42.75 86 03.5 48 Shell

A8 29 38.75 86 06.5 54 Fine Sand

A9 29 34.75 86 09.5 89 Fine sandy mud

DeSoto Canyon

Station ID Lat N Long W Depth m Sed, type

D1 29 31.292 87 1.0757 833 Mud

D2 29 17.6 87 00.0 1720 Mud


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Parameters measured at each site/cruise are as follows:

Physical Oceanography (1) Hydrographic (CTD) data collection for the full water column covering the head of DeSoto canyon and adjacent shelf (Temp, Sal., DO, Chl and CDOM fluor., Turbidity)

(2) PAR, UVA & UVB profiles

Chemical Oceanography

(1) Water chemistry: total and dissolved nutrients

Geological Oceanography Sediment sampling

(1)three replicate sediment Shipek grabs- sub-cored for benthic chlorophyll and DNA extractions for microbial ecology/community structure, composite of surface sediment for C&N content/ratio, and PAH content

Biological Oceanography

(1) net plankton vertical tow collections

(2) water column nannoplankton

(3) bacterial production

(4) primary production (IR curves)

(5) total chlorophyll

(6) microzooplankton community structure

(7) >0.2um plankton for DNA extraction surface, bottom and Chl max for microbial ecology/community structure of prokaryotes and eukayrotes.

PARTICIPANTS AND COLLABORATORS

8) Project participants

First Name Last Name Role in

Project Institution Email Gender Race Citizenship

Ian MacDonald PI Florida State Univ [email protected] Male Anglo USA

Richard Snyder Co-PI Univ. West Florida [email protected] Male Anglo USA

Oscar Garcia-Pineda Co-PI Florida State Univ [email protected] Male Hispanic Mexico

Steve Morey Collaborator Florida State Univ. [email protected] Male Anglo USA

Wade Jeffrey Collaborator Univ. West Florida [email protected] Male Anglo USA

Melissa Hagy Technician Univ. West Florida [email protected] Female Anglo USA

Joseph Moss Technician Univ. West Florida [email protected] Male Anglo USA


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MENTORING AND TRAINING

9) Student and post-doctoral participants

First Name Last Name Post-doc

/ PhD / MS / BS

Thesis or research topic

Institution Supervisor Expected Completion year

Gender Race Citizenship

Ivanna Blanco MS Coastal pollution FSU Chanton 2013 Female Hispanic Belize

Brian DeSanti MS Deepsea Corals FSU MacDonald 2012 Male Anglo USA

Samira Danishgar PhD Coastal Oil Pollution FSU MacDonald 2014 Female Turkic Ira

Erin Easton MS Deepsea Macrofauna

FSU Thistle 2012 Female Anglo USA

Robert Ellis PhD Fish ecology FSU Coleman 2014 Male Anglo USA

Melissa Rohal MS Deepsea Meiofauna FSU Thistle 2012 Female Anglo USA

Mauricio Silva PhD Deepsea benthic communities

FSU MacDonald 2014 Male Hispanic Chile

Brian Wells PhD Coastal Oil Pollution FSU Huettel 2014 Male Anglo USA

Jesse Rosabalm MS Plankton production

UWF Jeffrey 2012 female Anglo USA

Alexander Ren MS Oceanographic techniques

UWF Pomory 2012 male Asian-Anglo

USA

Bethany Wight MS Elemental Analysis UWF Darby 2013 female Anglo USA

Rebbecca Carruth, MS Oceanographic techniques

UWF Pomory 2012 female Anglo USA

Lois O’Boyle MS Oceanographic techniques

UWF Bennett 2011 female Anglo USA

Alice Lopez BS Oceanographic techniques

UWF Snyder 2013 female Hispanic Brazil

Fernanda Martinelli BS Oceanographic techniques

UWF Snyder 2013 female Hispanic Brazil

Lauren Amick BS PAH sampling and analysis

UWF Snyder 2013 female Anglo USA

Christopher Maxwell BS Oceanographic techniques

UWF Snyder 2012 male Anglo USA

Natalie Hunt BS Chlorophyll, DNA UWF Snyder 2014 female Anglo USA

Marie Gaona BS Data management UWF Snyder 2012 female Anglo USA

Rachael Rice BS Bacteria UWF Jeffrey 2012 female Anglo USA

Lauren Campanella BS Sediments UWF Snyder 2013 female Anglo USA

Britnee Longino BS PAHs UWF Snyder 2012 female Anglo USA

Chelsea McCurry BS Plankton, DNA UWF Snyder 2015 female Anglo USA

Preston Shisgal BS Microzooplankton UWF Snyder 2012 female Anglo USA

Kaitlyn Toebe BS Chlorphyll, Nutrients


Angela Collinson BS Chlorphyll, Nutrients


Samantha Gourlie BS Data management UWF Snyder 2012 female Anglo USA

Aubry Tucker BS Chlorophyll UWF Snyder 2012 female Anglo USA

Heather Smith BS Oceanographic techniques


Katie Darr BS Oceanographic UWF Snyder 2012 female Anglo USA


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techniques

Marissa Mercado BS Oceanographic techniques


Kortney Pastor BS Oceanographic techniques


Eric Stratmann BS Oceanographic techniques

UWF Snyder 2013 male Anglo USA

Joel Marks BS PAH sampling and analysis

UWF Snyder 2012 male African American

USA

10) Student and post-doctoral publications, if planned a) Garcia-Pineda, O, MacDonald, I.R. Li, X, and Pichel, W. Oil Spill Mapping and Measurement in the

Gulf of Mexico with Textural Classifier Neural Network Algorithm, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, Manuscript IDJSTARS-2012-00248, DOI 10.1109/JSTARS.2013.2244061 (2013).

b) Daneshgar, S., Amos, J, Wood, P. Schumaker, B. and MacDonald I. Quantifying Chronic Anthropogenic Oil Discharges with Satellite SAR. Environmental Research Letters. ( in preparation)

c) Silva, M, Daneshgar, S., MacDonald, ISoft coral damage and fish populations at mesophotic reef sites in the Gulf of Mexico. (Environmental Research Letters, in preparation)

d) Garcia-Pineda, O. MacDonald I.R. , Li, X, Jackson, C. Pichel, W. Oil Spill Mapping in the Gulf of Mexico with textural classifer neural network algorthm (TCNNA), Transactions of Geoscience and Remote Sensing Deep Sea Research II Topical Studies in Oceanography (submission imminent)

11) Figures


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Figure 1 Coast watch sampling sites


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Figure 2. Cumulative oil cover during Deepwater Horizon discharge 25 April-25 July 2010.


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Figure 3. Damaged coral (Swiftia sp) observed at Alabama Alps Reef (68m depth)


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Figure 4. Coral damage recovery monitoring station established at Rough Tongue Reef (73m

depth).


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Figure 5. Coastwatch monitoring stations, mesophotic reefs, and cumulative oil cover. Note

that Madison Swanson Marine Reserve (MSMR) experienced scant or no surface oil cover,

while Rough Tongue Reef and Alabama Alps Reef received extensive oil cover. The

COASTWATCH stations were intermediate in the amount of surface oil cover.


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Figure 6. University of West Florida personnel conducting sampling operations onboard RV

WEATHERBIRD.


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Figure 7. High resolution camera system deployed for surveying coral damage at mesophotic

reef sites.


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Figure 8. PAH composition of source oil and the floating mats (tar patty) of weathered oil

reaching the Panhandle of Florida.

Figure 9. PAH concentrations on the transect due south of Pensacola, FL, taken June 2010

during the oil spill. Note the enrichment of heavier Phenanthrenes indicting weathering with

distance from source.


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Figure 10. One year later (June 2011), PAH levels on the shelf are near non-detect, and may

well represent background. Background concentrations of PAHs in the region from human

activity and natural oil seeps was not previously determined. Thus, these data not only show

recovery, but provide a baseline for the future.

florida state university: coastwatch · florida state university: coastwatch ian macdonald, pi....

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