At an increasingly global scale, aquatic scientists are heavily entrenched in understanding the fate of marine ecosystems in the face of human-altered environments. Oil spill disasters, especially large-scale ones like the 2010 Deepwater Horizon tragedy, have left uncertain and indelible marks on marine ecosystems.
Impacts of Oil Spill Disasters on Marine Habitats and Fisheries in North America contains independent scientific findings and critical reviews from experts researching the impacts of the Exxon Valdez, Ixtoc I, and Deepwater Horizon oil spills on coastal fishery resources. Comprised of three sections, this seminal work:
- Details the physiological effects of oil-derived compounds on fishes, presenting results from field and laboratory investigations
- Addresses the science of assessing the impacts of oil spills and oil response measures on coastal habitats, with an emphasis on salt-marsh ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico
- Explores the quantified and potential impacts of oil spills on population and community dynamics of commercial and recreational fishery species
- Provides newly released results from the 25-year recovery of marine mammals, birds, and fishes following the Exxon Valdez spill
Chapters discuss new techniques for collecting and processing blood samples for toxicity testing, new aerial radar techniques for detecting unseen oil on marshes, consequences of oil prevention measures (such as diverting fresh water to estuaries or building sand berms to stop oil) on coastal fishery resources, and non-traditional methods for assessing the herring stock in Prince William Sound, Alaska, USA following the Exxon Valdez disaster.
J. Brian Alford is currently an assistant professor at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA. He holds a BS and MS from the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, USA, and a Ph.D from Mississippi State University, Starkville, USA. He previously worked as an environmental scientist for the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, Jackson, USA; field technician at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA; research coordinator at Mississippi State University for assessing post-Hurricane Katrina restoration of catfish and largemouth bass fisheries in the Pascagoula River Basin; and fisheries research biologist for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Baton Rouge, USA.
Mark S. Peterson is a professor at The University of Southern Mississippi, Ocean Springs, USA. His current research projects in the university's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory include: developing ecosystem-based management tools (field monitoring, GIS, modeling) to evaluate habitat use and recruitment success of fishes in coastal ecosystems; evaluating the influence of altered/fragmented, partially-altered/fragmented, and near-pristine salt-marsh tidal creeks on diversity, community structure, and food web structure of fishes using traditional and stable isotope methodology; quantifying size-related movement patterns and critical habitat characteristics of threatened Gulf sturgeon including large-scale connectivity of eastern and western populations; and more.
Christopher C. Green is an associate professor at Louisiana State University (LSU), Baton Rouge, USA. He holds a BS from the University of Oklahoma, Norman, USA; MS from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, USA; and Ph.D from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA. Dr. Green's lab at the LSU Agricultural Center (AgCenter) focuses on applied reproductive fish physiology and endocrinology, with an emphasis on freshwater and estuarine aquaculture species. A popular reviewer, Dr. Green has served on the editorial board of the North American Journal of Aquaculture and as co-editor of the second edition of Cryopreservation of Aquatic Species.
