Abstract
Despite great efforts including bioremediation, the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spills persist in many gravel beaches in Prince William Sound, Alaska, USA. To explore this mystery, a lithium tracer study was conducted along two transects on one of these beaches. The tracer injections and transports were successfully simulated using the 2-dimensional numerical model MARUN. The tracer stayed much longer in the oil-persisting, right transect (facing landwand) than in the clean, left transect. If the tracer is approximately regarded as oils, oils in the upper layer would have more opportunities to enter the lower layer in the right transect than in the left one. This may qualitatively explain the oil persistence within the right transect. When the tracer is regarded as nutrients, the long stay of nutrients within the right transect implies that the oil persistence along the right transect was not due to the lack of nutrients during the bioremediation.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1261-1269 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Marine Pollution Bulletin |
Volume | 62 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 2011 |
Externally published | Yes |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Oceanography
- Aquatic Science
- Pollution
Keywords
- Bioremediation
- Nutrient application
- Oil-spills
- Seawater-groundwater interaction
- Tidal beach
- Tracer study