Content Details
Stability and Change in Gulf of Mexico Chemosynthetic Communities, Volume I: Executive Summary and Volume II: Technical Report
- Branch
- Executive
- Category
- Executive Agency Publications
- SuDoc Class Number
- I 72.
- Government Author
- Interior Department, Minerals Management Service
- Personal Author
- MacDonald IR
- Series Title
- BOEM Environmental Studies
- Publication Title
- Stability and Change in Gulf of Mexico Chemosynthetic Communities, Volume I: Executive Summary and Volume II: Technical Report
- Date Issued
- 2002
- Subject
- Marine Biodiversity
Marine Benthic Communities
Benthic Ecology; Chemosynthetic Communities; Continental Slope; Geochemistry; Growth Rates; Hydrocarbon Seeps; Hydrocarbons; Offshore Oil and Gas Production; Parasitism; Pore-Water Chemistry; Seep Mytilids; Side-Scan Sonar; Stable Isotopes; Submersibles; Vestimentifera
- Obligation Number
- 14-35-0001-30813
- Geographic Scope
- Gulf of Mexico
- Report Number
- 2002-035 & 2002-036
- CSE Reference
- MacDonald IR (Texas A&M University, College Station, TX). 2002. Stability and change in Gulf of Mexico chemosynthetic communities, volume I: executive summary and volume II: technical report. New Orleans (LA): US Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service. 5 p. Obligation No.: 14-35-0001-30813. Report No.: OCS Study MMS 2002-035 & OCS Study MMS 2002-036. URL: https://espis.boem.gov/Technical%20Summaries/3073.pdf
- Abstract
- The program was designed to aid the Minerals Management Service in the scientifically sound management of living resources found at hydrocarbon seeps on the northern Gulf of Mexico continental slope. An integrated, multi-disciplinary approach was proposed to address the complex issues associated with the protection of these unique living resources. As such, the program encompasses ecological studies at both regional and local spatial scales as well as an evaluation of temporal changes in these communities. Stability and change within these communities should be understood in the context of their interactions within the geological, chemical, and oceanographic setting. Knowledge of the processes that control the distribution, health, and succession of communities in these environments is necessary to forecast and forestall potential impacts derived from exploration and exploitation of fossil energy reserves on the northern Gulf of Mexico continental slope. Integrated studies were designed to collect ecological, geological, chemical, and oceanographic information related to the longevity, robustness, senescence, and recovery of chemosynthetic communities.