How Did the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Affect Coastal and Continental Shelf Ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico?

Abstract

Despite the significance of plankton in contributing to the stability of marine food webs, there is surprisingly little pre-Deepwater Horizon baseline information on the seasonal and interannual variability in plankton species composition and plankton dynamics in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico with which to evaluate the impacts of the oil spill.