USM conducts oil spill impact study on Mississippi coastal marshes | Environment

When the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill disaster occurred along the Gulf Coast two years ago, ecologists at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg wanted to dig deep to study the impacts.

Researchers have spent most of their time at test sites like Lake Thoreau Environmental Center in the city, but the Oil Spill opened up a different eco-system to research, along with a new set of challenges.

While much research has been done on water quality and animal life along the coast, graduate student Knox Flowers led a team of researchers to study the impact of the oil spill on plants in the Mississippi marshland and look at how the coastal marshes are recovering.

For more on this article, click HERE to go to the USM website.