Date of Award

Spring 2025

Project Type

Thesis

Program or Major

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Degree Name

Master of Science

First Advisor

Nancy Kinner

Second Advisor

Kai Ziervogel

Third Advisor

Phillip Ramsey

Abstract

Naturally forming marine snow has long been studied as a primary transport mechanism of organic carbon from the surface of the ocean to the benthic environments. Before the Deep Water Horizon oil spill, marine snow was not considered a significant transport mechanism for oil spilled at the surface. Interactions between sediment and oil have been studied in the past, however the study of Marine Oil Snow (MOS) is an emerging research topic to better understand the fate of spilled oil. A previous UNH graduate student, Jesse Ross, investigated the potential for spilled oil to interact with marine snow via field sampling in Cook Inlet, AK, paired with laboratory roller-bottle experiments. This work displayed that marine snow does interact with spilled oil, and has the potential to be a significant transport mechanism. To better understand the fate of marine oil snow, experiments have been conducted at UNH to investigate the settling velocities associated with MOS. Several roller-bottle experiments have been conducted, cultivating marine snow derived from cultured artic phytoplankton, and introducing sediment and oil as different treatments. The settling of this cultivated marine snow with various treatments was observed using high-resolution cameras in a controlled environment to simulate conditions of Cook Inlet, AK. Analysis of these videos was conducted using Image-J, by tracking individual particles over time and calculating average settling velocities of each treatment. Settling velocities have been shown to vary greatly between each treatment, providing data that could be used to better-understand the fate of oil in different environmental conditions. The goal of this data is to better inform decision-makers during oil spill response, and could be used in conjunction with environmental models to predict transport of MOS. With a better understanding of the transport of MOS, decision-makers can better protect national resources which may be impacted by a MOS event.

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