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2013 Conference Report Thank You We would like to thank the Executive Committee for its time and direction in planning the Conference. Charles Wilson (Chair) Robert Dickey Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Food and Drug Administration C. Duane Armstrong Alan Leonardi National Aeronautics and Space Administration National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Michael Carron Jerry Miller Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Office of Science and Technology Policy Rodney Cluck Donald Rice Bureau of Ocean Energy Management National Science Foundation David Conover Paul Sandifer National Science Foundation National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Alyssa Dausman David Shaw U.S. Geological Survey Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Allen Dearry Andrew Shepard National Inst. of Environmental Health Sciences Gulf of Mexico University Research Collaborative Robert Detrick Denis Wiesenburg National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative We also thank the staff of the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Administrative Unit and the Federal Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology, who worked so diligently behind the scenes to ensure everything ran smoothly. And our conference sponsors: Table of Contents Executive Summary ............................................................................................... 1 Agenda .......................................................................................................................... 3 Keynote Speaker - Admiral Thad Allen USCG, Retired .................................... 9 Plenary Speakers .................................................................................................. 10 John W. Farrington University of Massachusetts Dartmouth ...................... 10 Steven A. Murawski University of South Florida ........................................ 11 Maureen Y. Lichtveld Tulane University ................................................... 12 Michael K. Orbach Duke University ............................................................ 13 Rex H. Caffey Louisiana State University ....................................................... 13 Holly A. Bamford NOAA.............................................................................. 14 Science Session Descriptions .......................................................................... 15 Plenary Session Summary and Synthesis ................................................. 29 Conference Participant Feedback ................................................................ 34 Science Presentation and Poster Abstracts............................................. 35 Session: 001 Chemical Methods for Comprehensive Oil Spill Analysis .................................................................................................... 35 Session: 002 Coastal Inshore Impacts of Oil: From Mousse to Food Webs ........................................................................ 51 Session: 003 Data Management and Informatics: Supporting Gulf of Mexico Research ........................................................... 70 Session: 004 Dispersant: New Developments in Science and Technology and Implications to Deep Sea Oil Releases ........................... 77 Session: 005 Ecosystems of the Open Ocean: Microbes Mammals and Models—Lower Trophic Level Studies ............ 97 Session: 006 Ecosystems of the Open Ocean: Microbes Mammals and Models—Higher Trophic Level Studies ........ 109 Session: 007 Ecosystems of the Open Ocean: Microbes Mammals and Models—Analysis and Modeling ................... 117 January 21-23, 2013 – New Orleans, Louisiana i Table of Contents Science Presentation and Poster Abstracts (continued) Session: 008 Physical Oceanography of the Northern Gulf of Mexico ....... 121 Session: 009 The Submesoscale Route to Transport and Mixing ................ 127 Session: 010 Advances in Modeling the Gulf of Mexico ............................... 132 Session: 011 Public Health Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill .... 146 Session: 012 Socio‐economic Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill ....................................................................... 158 Session: 013 Hydrocarbon Distributions, Cycling and Impacts in Blue Water Benthic and Pelagic Environments ....................................... 165 Session: 014 Oil Droplets and Particles— Physical Processes Affecting the Breakup and Transport of Micro Oil Droplets and Biophysical Interactions of Plankton Bacteria at Oil‐water Interfaces ..................... 177 Session: 015 Biodegradation Pathways and Environmental Impacts of Hydrocarbon Discharge‐Omics and Biogeochemistry Approaches ................................................................................................... 186 Session: 016 Time Series Studies of the Impacts of Oil and Gas Releases in Northern Gulf of Mexico ........................................................ 200 Session: 017 Technological, Environmental and Policy Developments for Improved Research and Operations in the Gulf of Mexico ............. 208 Session: 018 Remote Sensing and the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill .......... 215 Session: 019 Models and Observations Working Together to Understand the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill .......................................... 223 Appendix 1: Teacher Workshop Synthesis ........................................... 231 ii Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill & Ecosystem Science Conference Executive Summary The Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science Conference was held January 21- 23, 2013 in New Orleans, La. The conference was organized by an Executive Committee composed of representatives of seven federal agencies, the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) and Gulf of Mexico University Research Consortium (GoMURC). The conference announcement and call for scientific session proposals were released in the spring of 2012. Scientific community enthusiasm and need for this conference generated a robust agenda: Fifty-three session proposals were received which resulted in the coalescence and/or selection of 19 separate scientific sessions Conference registration produced 1044 registrants representing 13 countries, 40 states and the District of Columbia, from more than 120 universities internationally, 23 federal agencies, 11 state-level agencies and organizations, and more than 70 businesses and NGOs With regard to scientific content, 518 abstracts were accepted for the Conference; given the number of scientific sessions chosen and participant interest it was impossible to include everyone and not have up to 6 concurrent scientific sessions Two and a half days of concurrent sessions with 334 oral presentations and 184 posters in three poster sessions Student participation was significant with a total of 135 abstracts submitted by student authors (54 oral and 82 poster) The opening plenary session consisted of a keynote address by Admiral Thad Allen and five plenary speakers. Adm. Allen gave a highly motivating talk about lessons learned during the Deepwater Horizon event and offered specific suggestions for policy change and moving forward within federal agencies and the interaction across those agencies, state government and the scientific community. Five plenary speakers were engaged to set the scene for scientific discourse during the conference; topics included reflection on past events as they relate to oil spill chemistry, our state of the knowledge of ecosystem level science, public health and related community science, socio-economics, and policy. The meeting closed with the five plenary speakers providing wrap up suggestions and research gap analysis, along with a combined Q&A and comment session to solicit input from the conference attendees. Feedback from the plenary speakers and comments by the audience during the closing plenary session formed the basis for discussion about where we have come, recommendations for January 21-23, 2013 – New Orleans, Louisiana 1 Executive Summary future research, and suggestions for a future conference. The primary gaps identified included a lack of socioeconomic and public health research. A major need identified was collaboration between all the funding agencies involved in the Gulf of Mexico to leverage their resources and avoid duplication. Some sample bulleted highlights include: Research content had good cross-cutting, inter-disciplinary, components of breadth, depth, and diversity There was integration of social science and human health research in discussions, though more is needed There was a gratifying mix of students and senior researchers – students are our legacy Outreach activities show interactions that can inform all stakeholders, needs to continue as we move forward Participants engaged in healthy (agree/disagree) dialogue on dispersants Encourage more of a balance between risks and rewards of funded research Avoid pre-mature synthesis of research but start working now to bring groups together for synthesis discussion We should avoid redundancy among science funding agencies and inefficient use of resources Hold this meeting again and allow time for interactive workshops with open dialog about gaps Lack of higher trophic level work underway (some buried in NRDA) Conference feedback was also garnered through an online survey of conference participants two weeks after the conference. About 30% of 1044 attendees responded to the post- conference survey and comments were similar to the plenary panel: Respondents rated the overall conference positively (4.1/5) There was
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