NSF awards ECU Research Team of Mallinson, Leorri, Mitra, and Culver a $400K award. Coastal Combined Hydrodynamic and Natural Geomorphic Evolution (Coastal CHANGE) is born!

For those of you who have been following this blog, you know that we went to the Gulf of Mexico last summer to collect air and water samples. Well, the analyses of last year's samples are complete and here is what we have to say. First, the PAH distribution pattern for the BP oil from the DWH oil slick is distinct from other oil seeps we analyzed in the Gulf of Mexico. Second, the PAH distributions across the environmental samples collected from the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 are visually comparable and similar across the Gulf Coast region. Lastly, the environmental samples are enriched in low molecular weight PAH compounds.

Our PAH analyses suggests that there is a "fingerprint" of the PAHs from the Deepwater Horzion riser oil (see image). We're presently working on a paper in which we document the presence of that fingerprint in zooplankton collected from the Gulf of Mexico in September 2010.

The field work designed to collect baseline samples for the NSF RAPID project began on July 19th 2010. Jim Watson, my trusty sidekick, and I were "locked and loaded", ready to begin sampling the atmosphere in the Gulf Coast states.

NSF Chemical Oceanography has awarded the Mitra Organic Geochemistry group a RAPID award to determine if storms during the 2010 hurricane season will transfer oil-derived hydrocarbons to land via rainfall.

http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=1047736

Glendon Hunsinger, the Mitra Organic Geochemistry group's first PhD student, gets his first dissertation paper published in the prestigious journal Limnology and Oceanography! Congratulations Glendon!

This past week, Dr. Dave Kimmel and I were interviewed several times by local media. No, we didn't rob a bank!!:) We are both involved in research projects related to the Deepwater Horizon spill.

Here is a link to one of the stories:

http://www2.wnct.com/news/2010/jun/08/ecu-profs-research-gulf-spill-hydr...

Greetings Everyone! My graduate student Nidhi Patel, an undergraduate Kirsten Grosweiller, and I just returned from a ~24h cruise collecting water and sediment from coastal North Carolina. This expedition was conducted in collaboration with UNC Wilmington onboard their vessel the R/V Cape Fear. The samples we collected will be analyzed for baseline levels of hydrocarbons in case the Deepwater Horizon spill makes it way around Florida and proceeds up the Atlantic seaboard.

Stay tuned for the results of our analyses.

SM

Nidhi Patel, Caitlin Bell, and Josh Bartel all presented the results of their research at this week's Research and Creativity Week.