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Persistence and biodegradation of oil at the ocean floor following Deepwater Horizon

Overview of attention for article published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, December 2016
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (97th percentile)
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (78th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
8 news outlets
blogs
2 blogs
twitter
13 X users
facebook
2 Facebook pages
googleplus
3 Google+ users
reddit
1 Redditor

Citations

dimensions_citation
108 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
166 Mendeley
Title
Persistence and biodegradation of oil at the ocean floor following Deepwater Horizon
Published in
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, December 2016
DOI 10.1073/pnas.1610110114
Pubmed ID
Authors

Sarah C. Bagby, Christopher M. Reddy, Christoph Aeppli, G. Burch Fisher, David L. Valentine

Abstract

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster introduced an unprecedented discharge of oil into the deep Gulf of Mexico. Considerable uncertainty has persisted regarding the oil's fate and effects in the deep ocean. In this work we assess the compound-specific rates of biodegradation for 125 aliphatic, aromatic, and biomarker petroleum hydrocarbons that settled to the deep ocean floor following release from the damaged Macondo Well. Based on a dataset comprising measurements of up to 168 distinct hydrocarbon analytes in 2,980 sediment samples collected within 4 y of the spill, we develop a Macondo oil "fingerprint" and conservatively identify a subset of 312 surficial samples consistent with contamination by Macondo oil. Three trends emerge from analysis of the biodegradation rates of 125 individual hydrocarbons in these samples. First, molecular structure served to modulate biodegradation in a predictable fashion, with the simplest structures subject to fastest loss, indicating that biodegradation in the deep ocean progresses similarly to other environments. Second, for many alkanes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons biodegradation occurred in two distinct phases, consistent with rapid loss while oil particles remained suspended followed by slow loss after deposition to the seafloor. Third, the extent of biodegradation for any given sample was influenced by the hydrocarbon content, leading to substantially greater hydrocarbon persistence among the more highly contaminated samples. In addition, under some conditions we find strong evidence for extensive degradation of numerous petroleum biomarkers, notably including the native internal standard 17α(H),21β(H)-hopane, commonly used to calculate the extent of oil weathering.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 13 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 166 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 1 <1%
Canada 1 <1%
Unknown 164 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 33 20%
Student > Ph. D. Student 30 18%
Student > Master 21 13%
Student > Bachelor 14 8%
Professor > Associate Professor 8 5%
Other 31 19%
Unknown 29 17%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Environmental Science 35 21%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 30 18%
Earth and Planetary Sciences 25 15%
Engineering 9 5%
Chemistry 9 5%
Other 22 13%
Unknown 36 22%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 82. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 25 September 2017.
All research outputs
#498,213
of 24,625,114 outputs
Outputs from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#8,860
of 101,438 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#10,828
of 430,560 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#191
of 903 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,625,114 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 97th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 101,438 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 38.8. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 430,560 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 903 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 78% of its contemporaries.