As the Deepwater Horizon spill progresses, I've been tracking
down the science that has been done as a result of other large
spills, particularly the monitoring of ecosystem damage and
recovery. It's a mixed bag, apples and oranges in some cases,
largely dependent on the communities affected, the extent of the
spill, the cleanup effort and the environmental/species
composition of the affected area. I went straight to the biggest
first, the Gulf War oil spill, which started in January of 1991
and ended up leaking 11 million barrels of oil (one barrel = 42
gallons) into the Persian Gulf, which eventually washed up on to
the shorelines of the area, invading the beaches, salt marshes
and mangrove forests. In 2001 and then again in 2008 , Dr. Hans-
Jörg Barth of the University of Regensburg reported on the
ecological effects of the spill, which are apparent to this day.
A couple of things to keep in mind: First, every spill is
different. Deepwater Horizon is much more widespread than the
Gulf War spill, which means