Monday 28 February 2011

EFFECT OF CRUDE OIL AND AN OIL-SPILL DISPERSANT ON REEF CORALS

Lewis, John B
FOUR SPECIES OF CORALS FROM THE REEFS ON THE WEST COASTS OF BARBADOS WERE TESTED IN LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS FOR THE EFFECTS OF CRUDE OIL AND OIL-SPILL DETERGENTS. ALL FOUR SPECIES WERE FOUND TO BE SENSITIVE TO POLLUTION BY BOTH CRUDE OIL AND THE OIL-SPILL DISPERSANTS. ALL WERE MORE AFFECTED BY THE DISPERSANT THAN BY THE CRUDE OIL. BOTH POLLUTANTS HAD A HARMFUL EFFECT UPON CORALS AT CONCENTRATIONS OF 100 TO 500 PPM AND RECOVERY AFTER 24 HR. EXPOSURE WAS NOT COMPLETE AT THESE CONCENTRATIONS. (ENSIGN-PAI)

Descriptors: Crude oil | Corals | Dispersants | Reefs | Coasts | Barbados | Mathematical analysis | Pollutants | Pollution abatement | Boundary element method | Detergents | Recovery