Rapid recovery of coastal environment and ecosystem to the Hebei Spirit oil spill's impact SCIE SCOPUS

Cited 19 time in WEB OF SCIENCE Cited 22 time in Scopus
Title
Rapid recovery of coastal environment and ecosystem to the Hebei Spirit oil spill's impact
Author(s)
Yim U.H.; Hong S.; Lee C.; Kim M.; Jung J.-H.; Ha S.Y.; An J.G.; Kwon B.-O.; Kim T.; Lee C.-H.; Yu O.H.; Choi H.W.; Ryu J.; Khim J.S.; Shim W.J.
KIOST Author(s)
Yim, Un Hyuk(임운혁)Kim, Moon Koo(김문구)Jung, Jee Hyun(정지현)Ha, Sung Yong(하성용)An, Joon Geon(안준건)Yu, Ok Hwan(유옥환)Choi, Hyun Woo(최현우)Shim, Won Joon(심원준)
Alternative Author(s)
임운혁; 김문구; 정지현; 하성용; 안준건; 유옥환; 최현우; 심원준
Publication Year
2020-03
Abstract
The 2007 Hebei Spirit oil spill (HSOS), the largest in the national history, has negatively impacted the entire environment and ecosystem along the west coast of South Korea. Although many studies have reported the damages and impacts from the HSOS, quantitative assessment evaluating the recovery time and status have not been documented. Here, we first address the recovery timeline of the HSOS, by comprehensive analyses of 10-years accumulated data in quantitative manner. Concentrations of residual oils in seawater, sediments, and oysters rapidly dropped to backgrounds in 16, 75, and 33 months, respectively. Also, damaged benthic communities of intertidal and subtidal areas were fully recovered only after ~6 years. The present results collectively indicated unexpectedly fast recovery of the damaged environment and ecosystem from such a huge oil spill. The high tidal mixing (~9 m tidal height) and intensive human cleanup (~1.2 million volunteers) at the initial cleanup period might have contributed to rapid recovery; cf. 4–5 times faster than the Exxon Valdez oil spill. However, potential risk to human health remains unclear. Thus, it is warranted to conduct more in depth epidemiological studies to address chronic health effects associated with the cleanup volunteers as well as the local residents who have been living nearby the oil spill impacted sites. © 2019 The Authors
ISSN
0160-4120
URI
https://sciwatch.kiost.ac.kr/handle/2020.kiost/38726
DOI
10.1016/j.envint.2019.105438
Bibliographic Citation
Environment International, v.136, 2020
Publisher
Elsevier Ltd
Keywords
Benthic community; Crude oil; Human health; Oil spill; Recovery; Sediments
Type
Article
Language
English
Document Type
Article
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