Study: BP oil leak caused temporary coastal erosion increase

The study found that oil from the leak killed salt marsh plants 15 to 30 feet from the shoreline. When the plants die, so do the roots that hold together coastal sediment and that allowed erosion rates to increase, the study found.

Elevated erosion rates for a year and a half after the spill averaged more than 10 feet of shoreline loss per year, which is twice the natural rate for the area studied in Barataria Bay, according to the report.

However, the lead author of the study and University of Florida biologist Brian Silliman said unaffected and healthy marsh plants in the marsh interior grew back into areas where the die-off occurred and the soil still remained. Once the marsh regrew in these areas, the erosion rates went back down to a pre-oil spill leak, he said.

The report is available online at www.pnas.org.

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