Radiocarbon evidence that carbon from the Deepwater Horizon spill entered the planktonic food web of the Gulf of Mexico

Abstract

The Deepwater Horizon (Macondo) oil spill released large volumes of oil and gas of distinct carbon isotopic composition to the northern Gulf of Mexico, allowing Graham et al (2010 Environ. Res. Lett. 5 045301) to use stable carbon isotopes (δ ^13 C) to infer the introduction of spilled oil into the planktonic food web. Surface ocean organic production and measured oil are separated by 5–7‰ in stable carbon isotope (δ ^13 C) space, while in radiocarbon (Δ ^14 C) space these two potential sources are separated by more than 1000‰. Thus radiocarbon isotopes provide a more sensitive tracer by which to infer possible introduction of Macondo oil into the food web. We measured Δ ^14 C and δ ^13 C in plankton collected from within 100 km of the spill site as well as in coastal and offshore DIC (dissolved inorganic carbon or ΣCO _2 ) to constrain surface production values. On average, plankton values were depleted in ^14 C relative to surface DIC, and we found a significant linear correlation between Δ ^14 C and δ ^13 C in plankton. Cumulatively, these results are consistent with the hypothesis that carbon released from the Deepwater Horizon spill contributed to the offshore planktonic food web. Our results support the findings of Graham et al (2010 Environ. Res. Lett. 5 045301), but we infer that methane input may be important.

Keywords

• radiocarbon
• carbon isotope
• petroleum hydrocarbon
• methane
• Gulf oil spill