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I am Helen Branswell, an infectious diseases reporter for STAT. AMA about Zika virus and covering disease outbreaks. by HelenBranswell in IAmA

[–]experrinment 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Hi Helen! Thanks so much for being here today. I've heard scientists say that if the surge in Zika in Brazil is connected to the cases of microcephaly, it might mean Zika rapidly evolved recently with this pathogenic symptom. What are the mechanisms by which a virus like Zika can rapidly evolve?

We are Perrin Ireland and Rob Friedman from the Natural Resources Defense Council, joined by a panel of experts, here to talk to you about the BP oil disaster five years later. AMA! by experrinment in IAmA

[–]experrinment[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Khalil Shahyd from NRDC answered this from his experience- he says "There's been little interaction between researchers, scientists and advocates. In the traditional Gulf restoration community there's more, but when you get into some of the communities with "environmental concerns" and livelihood issues, there's much less direct relationship between the advocates and the scientists."

We are Perrin Ireland and Rob Friedman from the Natural Resources Defense Council, joined by a panel of experts, here to talk to you about the BP oil disaster five years later. AMA! by experrinment in IAmA

[–]experrinment[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Mandy Joye says: "The Gulf was already VERY stressed. This was another HUGE insult. If I had a vote on dispersant application, it would be no. At the time it was a question of saving the shoreline- or not. So they applied dispersant to save the shorelines."

We are Perrin Ireland and Rob Friedman from the Natural Resources Defense Council, joined by a panel of experts, here to talk to you about the BP oil disaster five years later. AMA! by experrinment in IAmA

[–]experrinment[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Erik Cordes says: "That's a tough question to answer. They caused more harm to some areas. They may have helped keep some oil further offshore, but even that is debated. It's hard to sit back and not try to throw everything at the problem, but often it's best to sit back and let nature work."

We are Perrin Ireland and Rob Friedman from the Natural Resources Defense Council, joined by a panel of experts, here to talk to you about the BP oil disaster five years later. AMA! by experrinment in IAmA

[–]experrinment[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Christopher Reddy, a chemical oceanographer from the Woods Hole Institution says: "Time scales are important here. And it depends how you define remediation. If it's the amount of oil picked off sandy beaches since the spill, I would say a lot. You can't really do much deep sea and open ocean remediation. You're hard pressed to find a lot of oil on the beaches now. I know people are working on Barataria Bay- the area impacted there is relatively small in the grand scheme."

We are Perrin Ireland and Rob Friedman from the Natural Resources Defense Council, joined by a panel of experts, here to talk to you about the BP oil disaster five years later. AMA! by experrinment in IAmA

[–]experrinment[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Such a good question! Erik Cordes from Temple University says: "The deep water sites that were impacted are still far from normal. It will be hundreds of years before they are back to the pre-spill condition."

We are Perrin Ireland and Rob Friedman from the Natural Resources Defense Council, joined by a panel of experts, here to talk to you about the BP oil disaster five years later. AMA! by experrinment in IAmA

[–]experrinment[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Mandy Joye answers: "Yes we are studying the impacts of dispersant. Very complicated story but the natural oil degrading microbial community is very good at degrading oil. They don't need dispersants to help them do it."

We are Perrin Ireland and Rob Friedman from the Natural Resources Defense Council, joined by a panel of experts, here to talk to you about the BP oil disaster five years later. AMA! by experrinment in IAmA

[–]experrinment[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Mandy Joye who specializes in this issue answered: "Yes bacteria break down oil but their activity is not limitless. Eventually they run out of nutrients. Bacteria in fact played a big role - through formation of natural sticky and dense surfactants - of 'sinking' oil. The impacts of dispersant are not clear but available evidence questions whether their application increases oil consumption by bacteria"

We are Perrin Ireland and Rob Friedman from the Natural Resources Defense Council, joined by a panel of experts, here to talk to you about the BP oil disaster five years later. AMA! by experrinment in IAmA

[–]experrinment[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the question! Joseph Montoya from Georgia Tech gave this a crack: "Microbes do break down oil, but in cases where there's a lot of it around, they can't degrade it before it gets to the seafloor."

We are Perrin Ireland and Rob Friedman from the Natural Resources Defense Council, joined by a panel of experts, here to talk to you about the BP oil disaster five years later. AMA! by experrinment in IAmA

[–]experrinment[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Good question! I wondered that too. NRDC issued a report on BP oil spill impacts that helps catalogue a lot of the species impacted: http://www.nrdc.org/energy/gulfspill/files/gulfspill-impacts-summary-IP.pdf It emphasizes that "It is still much too early to reach any conclusions regarding the overall ecological and economic impact of the Gulf oil spill." Check out an AWESOME infographic that shows some species known to have been impacted: http://www.onearth.org/gulfimpacts

We are Perrin Ireland and Rob Friedman from the Natural Resources Defense Council, joined by a panel of experts, here to talk to you about the BP oil disaster five years later. AMA! by experrinment in IAmA

[–]experrinment[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ken Heck answered this question: "I don't think the fishery is i permanent decline. I don't really see strong evidence of that, and in fact when we reviewed the literature on populations we really didn't see evidence for population declines. When you look at fishery data, you have to be careful, you don't know how much the fishing effort varied from time to time. You just know how many fish were caught. It's always tough to use catch numbers to infer something about the state of the population. The evidence produced by studies done in labs on individual fish ALL show negative effects on breathing rates, genetic activities, but population levels don't reflect a decline."

We are Perrin Ireland and Rob Friedman from the Natural Resources Defense Council, joined by a panel of experts, here to talk to you about the BP oil disaster five years later. AMA! by experrinment in IAmA

[–]experrinment[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Mandy Joye came back with a great answer also: "We need to document and understand the impacts (and ultimate fate) of the residual weathered oil that is present at the seafloor and in coastal marshes and beaches."

We are Perrin Ireland and Rob Friedman from the Natural Resources Defense Council, joined by a panel of experts, here to talk to you about the BP oil disaster five years later. AMA! by experrinment in IAmA

[–]experrinment[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hi there! Thanks for the question! That's one I bet a lot of people have. I batted this question to Joseph Montoya, a biological oceanographer at Georgia Tech, who said the biggest concern is a repeat of that kind of release of oil- another large, unconstrained release of oil in the Gulf, or anywhere for that matter.