2010-yilgi Deepwater Horizon neft to‘kilishi AQSh tarixidagi eng yirik dengiz neftining to‘kilishi bo‘ldi. Falokatga Deepwater Horizon neft platformasining portlashi sabab bo‘lgan, u bir vaqtning o‘zida nafaqat 11 kishining hayotiga zomin bo‘lgan, balki Meksika ko‘rfaziga qariyb 210 million gallon xom neftni ham chiqarib yuborgan.
O'n ikki yil o'tib, bu halokatli hodisaga javoban yuzlab million dollarlar sarflandi va olimlar bu neftning qaerga ketishini tushunish ustida ishlamoqda, bu tushuncha ekologik taqdir deb nomlanadi.
Dengizdagi neftning to'kilishining eng ko'p muhokama qilinadigan taqdiri biodegradatsiya (mikroorganizmlar neftni iste'mol qiladi va parchalaydi), bug'lanish (suyuq neft gazga aylanadi) va neft qirg'oqlarda qolib ketganidan keyin adsorbsiya hisoblanadi.
A team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has found that after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, nearly 10 percent of the oil floating in the Gulf was dissolved by sunlight into seawater - a process known as "photolysis". ". The findings are published today in the paper "Sunlight-driven dissolution is the main fate of offshore oil" in the journal Science Advances.
"During the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, the amount of oil that was converted by sunlight into compounds dissolved in seawater was different from what we usually know about the fate of oil (such as Biodegradation and stranding on shorelines) are comparable."
"One of the most fascinating aspects of this discovery is that it may affect our understanding of where oil is going elsewhere, and whether the outcome is good or bad," said lead author Danielle Haas Freeman, a student in the joint MIT/WHOI project. Say.
"If a significant portion of this oil is converted by sunlight and dissolved into seawater, it could mean that less oil ends up elsewhere, such as in sensitive coastal ecosystems. On the other hand, we have to consider the impact of these compounds on marine life. impact to determine whether the net result is positive or negative."
To make this important discovery, Freeman and Ward used a custom light-emitting diode (LED) reactor to measure how the velocity of this oil's fate changed under different types of light, such as ultraviolet and visible light.
"The process by which oil has been found to photolysis has actually been around for more than 50 years," Ward said. "But what's new here is that we understand how this process changes with the wavelength of light, which we determined using an LED reactor. This is key information that allows us to estimate the importance of this process during a leak."
LEDlarni ishlatadigan yangi o'lchash usullari, shuningdek, jarayonni boshqarishda qaysi shartlar eng muhimligini aniqlash imkonini beradi. Jamoa turli xil qalinlikdagi neft qatlamlari, yilning turli vaqtlari, dunyoning turli joylari va turli xil yorug'lik bilan to'kilishning taxminiy stsenariylarini yaratdi. Ularning payqashlaricha, bu o'zgaruvchan sharoitlarning ba'zilari boshqalardan ko'ra muhimroqdir.
Oil at the ocean's surface may have a new fate, a concept that has major implications for developing future oil spill research and spill response strategies. It is not known what the fate and potential toxicity of these sunlight-generated compounds are, making it challenging to assess the impact of this oil's fate. The researchers encourage the field to lean toward these gaps in knowledge.
"While our findings suggest that a significant portion of surface oil can dissolve into the ocean upon exposure to sunlight, the logical next step is to assess its persistence and potential harm to aquatic animals," Ward said.
