$4.8 million extends study on oil spill

COCODRIE, La. — Researchers led by a Louisiana consortium have received nearly $5 million to keep studying the effects of the 2010 oil spill on southeastern Louisiana marsh ecosystems.

The state board of regents said in a news release Friday that the $4.8 million grant from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative will keep the studies going for another two years.

The Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium and Nancy Rabalais, a Louisiana State University professor, coordinate research by investigators from the consortium, the university and across the United States.

As the Coastal Waters Consortium, those investigators have worked together for seven years. They expect to use the new grant to complete some of their experiments and synthesize the effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill on coastal communities.

Among things researchers are looking at are possible links between oil contaminants and shoreline erosion; changes to coastal vegetation; differences in greenhouse gas emissions from coastal ecosystems; and changes in carbon flows through wetland food webs.

The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative was created to administer up to $500 million that BP PLC committed after the Deepwater Horizon spill for 10 years of studies to investigate its effects on the Gulf of Mexico and coastal states. That includes studies of effects on the environment and on public health.