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Science 9 June 1972:
Vol. 176. no. 4039, pp. 1120 - 1122
DOI: 10.1126/science.176.4039.1120
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Articles

Oil Pollution: Persistence and Degradation of Spilled Fuel Oil

Max Blumer 1 and Jeremy Sass 1

1 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543

In September 1969, approximately 600 metric tons of number 2 fueloil were spilled in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts. Two years later, fuel oil hydrocarbons still persisted in the marsh and in offshore sediments. Hydrocarbon degradation is slow, especially below the immediate sediment surface and appears to proceed principally through microbial utilization of alkanes and through partial dissolution of the lower-boiling aromatic hydrocarbons. The boiling range of the spilled oil and the relative abundances of homologous hydrocarbons (for example, phytane and pristane) have been well preserved. The findings are in agreement with the known geochemical stability of hydrocarbons. Fuel oil is an appreciable fraction of whole crude oil. This fact suggests that oil products and crude oils have a considerable environmental persistence.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Long-Term Effects of an Oil Spill on Populations of the Salt-Marsh Crab Uca pugnax.
C. T. KREBS and K. A. BURNS (1977)
Science 197, 484-487
   Abstract »    PDF »
The Coastal Challenge.
D. L. Inman, D. L. Inman, and B. M. Brush (1973)
Science 181, 20-32
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Water Pollution: Organic Compounds in the Charles River, Boston.
R. A. Hites and K. Biemann (1972)
Science 178, 158-160
   Abstract »    PDF »


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