Oil spills and their impact on the environment

Oil spills and the impacts on the ecosystem

Discuss the short and long term effects of your chosen impacts on a specific ecosystem. Your response needs to include:
-a definition of the impact
- How the impact arises (Causes)
- the effects on the living AND non living components (think about all the spheres)
- Methods to reduce the impacts

An oil spill is a release of oil into a body of water, often stored in a tanker, offshore drilling rig or an underwater pipeline. An oil spill often presents a hazard to marine life and the environment.
One of the reasons that oil spills occur is because of human error. For example as an oil tanker runs aground it causes the oil tanker to collide an objects, such as a coral reef. This causes a breach in the tanker leading to oil spilling out. Oil spills also come from natural geological seeps from the ocean floor as well as leaks that occur when products that use various forms of oil are used on land and the oil is washed off into a body of water. Similarly, when drilling works are carried out in the sea, oil used for such activities are released into the sea, thus causing an oil spill.
Oil spills have a highly adverse effect on the environment and the ecosystem. Oil spills affect some species of animals, leading many of them to getting endangered. Seabirds are strongly affected by oil spills because when they get covered in oil, the oil weighs down on them and thus they are unable to fly. The coated oil also leads to birds losing their ability to control their internal temperature. Also birds would get poisoned from eating oil. All of these lead to the bird being unable to carry out natural processes such as hunting prey. The bird will eventually die unless given proper treatment.
Equally, the Killer whales have been affected strongly. Oil affects the Killer whale in many ways. The oil plugs the blowhole of the killer whale, rendering it unable to breathe. Secondly, the whale might eat fish that have swam through the oil or were poisoned by the oil, leading the killer whales to get poisoned too and die.
An oil spill would result in an unbalanced food web, which would affect the ecosystem in the long term. The oil would be toxic to eggs and larvae which are found on the beach and marshlands. This reduces the number of organisms in the age group. With marine life reduced, migrating birds would be affected when they are breeding because their resources have diminished.
When oil is spilt it reaches the coastline. Oil is think and it sticks to everything it touches. Every rock, piece of driftwood, saw grass, sand, soil, and microscopic habitat would be affected or destroyed by the oil that washes ashore. Unless there is an effort to clean up the coastline, the oil would stay there until time and weather break down the oil.

Read more: How Does an Oil Spill Affect The Environment? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4616883_oil-spill-affect-environment.html#ixzz2LoKEdjvR

Bibliography http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/oil+spill http://www.nwf.org/What-We-Do/Protect-Habitat/Gulf-Restoration/Oil-Spill/Effects-on-Wildlife.aspx

http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215471/oil_spills.htm http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/offshore-drilling.htm http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4616883_oil-spill-affect-environment.html

Bibliography: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/oil+spill http://www.nwf.org/What-We-Do/Protect-Habitat/Gulf-Restoration/Oil-Spill/Effects-on-Wildlife.aspx http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215471/oil_spills.htm http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/offshore-drilling.htm http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4616883_oil-spill-affect-environment.html