The Loop, C-IMAGE Research: Recent Episodes
David Levin
The Loop takes a deep dive into the Gulf of Mexico with the researchers studying the processes, mechanisms, and impacts of oil spills. The Center for Integrated Modeling and Analysis of Gulf Ecosystems (C-IMAGE) is an international research group studying mud, microbes and mammals after two mega spills,
Ecosystem services are benefits the environment provides to humans. Oil spills harm the environment and these services, like preventing marshlands from naturally dispersing storm surges. Measuring the cost of these services, economists are polling households asking how much someone would pay to prevent a spill or keep their marshlands protected. These estimates should be considered a factor when assessing the full economic damage of a spill, and how much someone is willing to pay to prevent them in the future.
In February 2018, a pair of unrelated science conferences were hosted in New Orleans, LA during the same week: Underwater Intervention and the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Sciences Conference. This coincidence provided the opportunity for a Marine Technology Society TechSurge workshop to bring engineers and oil spill researchers together to discuss common problems and future efforts between the groups.
C-IMAGE collaborated with researchers from the University of Havana for the first join U.S.-Cuban expedition in over 50 years. This 2017 expedition invited students and researchers from the University of Havana-Centro de Investigaciones Marinas to partner with C-IMAGE as part of the
When when an oil spill occurs, it's extremly hard to figure out which major commercial fish species are at risk. A team of scientists at the Mote Marine Laboratory hope to find out, however. At a facility 20 miles inland from the coast of Florida, they're growing adult fish—some of which are up to four feet long—in a series of huge tanks, and are slowly exposing them to oil. They're hoping their experients will show them how various species are affected by oil, both in the short term and the long term. If chemicals in oil affect their genes or their breeding, they say, the future of those species could be at risk.
For the first time in 35 years, Mexican and American scientists are collaborating to study the 1979
For more than a thousand years, life in Hamburg, Germany has revolved around water. This riverside city is one of Europe’s biggest ports. But today, a group of scientists is focused on waters half a world away, in the Gulf of Mexico. Using a thick metal tank the size of a hot water heater, they're testing water and oil samples from the
Fisheries biologist Steve Murawski from the University of South Florida is leading an international team of researchers to figure out the long-term impact of the Deepwater Horizon spill. Their plan: focus not just on the surface, but in the deep ocean. In this podcast, we dig into their research.