Consortium for Oil Spill Exposure Pathways in Coastal River-Dominated Ecosystems (CONCORDE)

PI: Monty Graham (University of Mississippi) with numerous co-PIs.
Funding Source: GOMRI

The CONsortium for oil spill exposure pathways in COastal River-Dominated Ecosystems (CONCORDE) was focused on the examination of how complex fine-scale structure and processes in coastal waters dominated by pulsed-river plumes control the exposure, impacts, and ecosystem recovery from offshore spills like the Deepwater Horizon release of 2010.

CONCORDE PIs characterized complex circulation and its relevance for toxin exposure movement using a combination of remotely-sensed and field-collected oceanographic data from three major campaigns. We were involved in efforts to incorporate ship-based plankton imaging using ISIIS to characterize the distribution patterns of planktonic organisms at scales of centimeters to meters.

The complex project is outlined in Greer et al. (2018). Kelia Axler completed her M.S. in our lab, producing two publications on the influence of the Mobile Bay river plume on distributions and growth of two common fish species (Axler et al. 2020a, b).

Publications led by lab postdoc Dr. Christian Briseno-Aveña are forthcoming. The integration and synthesis of CONCORDE research will advance the understanding of how coastal marine ecosystems respond to, and recover from, large-magnitude oiling events. The combined use of field and modeling approaches will enable us to answer questions relevant to other river-dominated ecosystems outside the Gulf of Mexico.

For more information, see http://www.con-corde.org/