Abstract:

Seagrass cores (6“ diameter, PVC, 10” long) of Ruppia maritima were collected in the Chandeleur Islands (Louisiana) and Estero Bay (Florida) to examine how the two populations responded to oil exposure (50% water accommodated fraction). Three cores from each site served as controls (no oil exposure), whereas three others served as treatment (50% WAF, diluted by half every day for 8 days). Seagrass response was measured via quantum yield (using a Dive PAM fluorometer) and seagrass blade color (using Munsell Plant Tissue color chips).

Suggested Citation:

Michael Parsons, Allison Bury. 2018. Seagrass (Ruppia maritima) responses to oil exposure in mesocosms. Distributed by: GRIIDC, Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/N7DB8069

Purpose:

To report data on the seagrass response to oil exposure from two sites: the Chandeleur Islands (Louisiana) and Estero Bay (Florida). The Estero Bay seagrasses were considered to be naïve to oil, as no oil extraction industry is present in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The Chandeleur Island seagrasses were assumed to be tolerant to (some) oil exposure, due the established petroleum industry in the northern Gulf.

Data Parameters and Units:

seagrass mesocosm dataset: Location: Location where seagrass cores (Ruppia maritima) were collected. "Louisiana" refers to the Chandeleur Islands (N 29.863750°, W 88.841466°), whereas "Florida" refers to seagrass cores collected in Estero Bay (N 26.381726°, W 81.857501°). Treatment: "control" had no oil exposure; only water changes every 24 hours (25 ppt). "oil" treatments consisted of 50% diluted Water Accommodated Fraction (WAF) oil, which was diluted again by 50% every 24 hours for eight days (50%, 25%, 12.5%, etc.). Three replicate cores in separate 5 gallon buckets were used for each location/treatment combination. Day: Day of the experiment, where Day 0 was the day before oil exposure, Days 1 - 8 were days of oil exposure, and Days 9 - 46 were days of recovery (post-oil exposure). Date: Dates data were collected during the experiment (MM/DD/YYYY). Top QY: Quantum yield measured at the top of three seagrass blades grouped together and held in place using leaf clips of the Diving PAM fluorometer (%). Middle QY: Quantum yield measured at the middle of the same three seagrass blades grouped together and held in place using leaf clips of the Diving PAM fluorometer (%). Bottom QY: Quantum yield measured at the base of the same three seagrass blades grouped together and held in place using leaf clips of the Diving PAM fluorometer (%). Avg QY: Average quantum yield value for the above three measurements (%). Avg Color: Average seagrass blade color of nine seagrass blades using the Munsell® Plant Tissue Color Chart, where the color 5YR 3/2 was given a score of 1 (Dead), 2.5YR 3/4 (2; very stressed), 2.5YR 8/4 (3; stressed), 5GY 6/8 (4; healthy), and 7.5GY 5/8 (5; ideal). Comments

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