Did you know that over 1.3 million metric tons of petroleum enters the sea worldwide each year? What’s the impact of these oil spills? I wonder, after a year or two, what really happened? The Xerces Society recently published a report that tries to answer that question with regard to marine invertebrates (including sea stars, mussels, oysters, snails, coral, crabs, lobsters, and shrimp). Impacts to invertebrates are especially critical, because invertebrates make up the vast majority of marine biodiversity, and they form the base of the various food chains in marine ecosystems. The report, Oil in Our Oceans, A Review of the Impacts of Oil Spills on Marine Invertebrates, by Michele Blackburn, Celeste Mazzacano, Candace Fallon, and Scott Hoffman Black, is available for download.
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