Project Overview

Summary:

     Dr. Beth Polidoro at Arizona State University was awarded an RFP-VI grant at $626,097 to conduct the RFP-VI project titled, “A Comprehensive Petrochemical Vulnerability Index for Improved Decision-Making and Marine Biodiversity Risk Assessment in the Gulf of Mexico Large Marine Ecosystem”. The project consisted of 2 other institutions (Old Dominion University and Baylor University); 1 principal investigator (Polidoro); 2 PhD level students (Peter Bruns, Kyle Strongin); 2 master’s level students (Christi Linardich, Megan Woodyard); and 3 undergraduate students (Fallon Bain, Anthony Chassen, Fredy Flores).

     A fundamental understanding of how multiple stressors interact and impact shared living marine resources in the Gulf of Mexico Large Marine Ecosystem (LME), which encompasses United States (U.S.), Mexican and Cuban waters, is critical to the development of effective management, restoration, recovery, and mitigation initiatives. The marine resource management community has recognized the need for improved comprehensive species information, including species-specific risk assessments to petrochemical exposure, in order to more effectively select and prioritize species, habitats, and ecosystems for improved management, restoration and recovery. Similarly, oil and gas industries operating in the Gulf of Mexico recognize the need to maintain sustainable business practices and reduce their impact on marine biodiversity, while also protecting their return on investment and managing business risk. Therefore, the primary goal of this project is to provide a variety of resource managers (representing government, non-profit, corporate and others) with freely-available, comprehensive, species-specific data and risk assessments for more than 2,000 marine species present in the Gulf of Mexico LME. These peer-reviewed datasets will include data and information on each species extinction risk, updated spatial distribution in the Gulf, and petrochemical vulnerability ranking for more than 2,000 marine species present in the Gulf of Mexico LME, including all known vertebrates and complete clades of select invertebrate groups. Public availability of these comprehensive species assessments and associated datasets will transform decision-making capacities for marine resource management, restoration, mitigation and recovery across the entire Gulf, and ultimately, will most effectively improve marine resource conservation outcomes.

     This proposed project has three research objectives: 1) To systematically collect and synthesize all relevant toxicological data, life history traits, and extinction risk assessments for 2,000 marine species, based on comprehensive synthesis of species data from the GoMRI GRIIDC database, extensive literature review, and consultation with expert scientists. Based on data collected for each species’ distribution, population status, life history, habitat, ecology, impact of major threats and conservation measures, all data will be evaluated and peer-reviewed in a workshop setting to determine each species current population status and extinction risk, expressed as an IUCN Red List Category; 2) To assign each of the 2,000 marine species a petrochemical vulnerability ranking, based on scoring of life-history and other traits related to likelihood of petrochemical exposure species sensitivity, and population resilience to petrochemicals and related stressors; and 3) To widely disseminate final datasets, methodologies, and products to interested stakeholders, including local and national governmental agencies, conservation organizations, academic institutions, and businesses, including the oil and gas industry.

     This proposed project directly addresses GoMRI research theme 3: the environmental effects of petrochemicals on marine habitats and marine species. In terms of scientific impact, this project will not only provide a unique, comprehensive marine species database, including updated species distribution maps, for the entire Gulf of Mexico LME, but it will develop a novel, peer-reviewed methodology to select and weight species biological and ecological traits under various probabilities of petrochemical exposure scenarios in order to systematically rank each species in terms of relative petrochemical vulnerability. As acute or chronic petrochemical toxicological data are not available for the vast majority of marine species, a trait and exposure-based vulnerability ranking may be the only way to comprehensively estimate species’ relative sensitivities and risks to petrochemical exposures. 

     This project also provides numerous other societal impacts by strengthening institutional and international collaboration, fostering new linkages between the United States, Mexican and Cuban scientists, developing new public and K-12 outreach materials, and engaging early career professionals, graduate students and undergraduate students in international collaborative research experiences.

Research Highlights

     Dr. Polidoro’s research, which has been presented to a variety of stakeholders and audiences across the globe, has resulted in 1 peer-reviewed publication, 5 scientific conference presentations to date and 2 datasets submitted to the GoMRI Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC), which are available to the public. Four additional manuscripts are in preparation. Significant outcomes of their research (all related to GoMRI Research Theme 3) are highlighted below.

1. Synthesis of Species Toxicological Studies

    Based on review of the GRIIDC database and more than 3,000 abstracts from a systematic Web of Science search, we completed an extensive literature review on the state of knowledge of PAH exposure and toxicological response for all marine species in the Gulf of Mexico. These initial results on the current state of knowledge of species sensitivities and measures of PAH exposures in the Gulf will form the backbone of our species petrochemical vulnerability rankings and exposure probabilities, while also providing key information on critical knowledge gaps that will require the use of life history and other surrogates to estimate relative species sensitivities.

Highlights from this literature review include:

• Across all studies, only about 375 different species were represented.
• Of these, more than 50% of studies are on bony fishes, 18% on birds, 7% on cartilaginous fishes (Figure 1).
• Less than 12% of studies found were on invertebrates, and less than 2% on either mammals, reptiles or plants.
• More than 60% of studies are on adults, with only 10% on juveniles and about 30% on embryonic or larval stage. The most common toxicological endpoints studied are mortality and/or growth.
• Approximately 47% of published studies are on impacts of crude oil, 40% on PAHs and 13% on dispersants.

Figure 1: Number of studies found per taxonomic group. Number in parenthesis after group name represents estimated total number of species in the Gulf of Mexico.

2. Comprehensive Extinction Risk Assessments for Gulf of Mexico Fishes

This project also completed IUCN extinction risk assessments for more than 400 species of deep-sea fishes. During the extinction risk assessment process, updated distribution maps were created for each species, as well as collection of all available distribution, population, life history, ecology, and other data. These data on deep sea fishes were currently lacking to complete our extinction risk and life history database for the more than 2,000 marine species that will be ranked in terms of probability of petrochemical exposure and petrochemical vulnerability. Our species database now covers all marine vertebrates (e.g. marine mammals, sea turtles, seabirds), all species in complete clades of select invertebrates (e.g. cephalopods, lobsters, cone snails, sea cucumbers, oysters, corals) and all mangrove and seagrass species (Figure 2). All species data and distribution maps are also available on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (www.iucnredlist.org), with a synthesis and analysis published in Global Ecology and Conservation (Strongin et al. 2020).

Figure 2: Completed IUCN Red List extinction risk categories for 2,223 marine species to be ranked for petrochemical vulnerability in the Gulf of Mexico. Number in parenthesis after group name represents estimated total number of species in the Gulf of Mexico.

3. Peer-reviewed, Multi-taxonomic Petrochemical Vulnerability Framework 

In collaboration with more than 30 scientific experts, we have finalized a trait-based framework for estimating the relative sensitivity of marine species to petrochemicals that can be applied to multiple taxonomic groups (e.g. vertebrates, invertebrates and plants). The resulting framework is comprised of 18 traits or elements which are grouped into three components: likelihood of exposure, species sensitivity and population resilience. The framework is currently being adapted to create specific indicators, scoring questions, and scoring schemes to complete the PVI rankings in three phases to produce final vulnerability scores for all marine fishes, all marine tetrapods and complete clades of marine invertebrates in the Gulf.

4. Petrochemical Vulnerability Rankings for 2,000 Marine Species in the Gulf

From the PVI framework, ranking questions and scoring schemes adapted for marine bony and chondrichthyan fishes have already been developed and applied to the more than 1600 marine fishes in the Gulf of Mexico. Scoring questions and rankings are also in the process of being produced for marine tetrapods (e.g. mammals, sea turtles, seabirds), and invertebrates (e.g. cephalopods, lobsters, cone snails, sea cucumbers, oysters, corals). All final ranking results are validated through sensitivity analyses, cross-checking with available toxicological information and expert review in collaboration with dozens of scientists from the US, Mexico and Cuba.

All project results, including final PVI rankings for 2,000 marine species will be integrated into an online decision making tool (see link below), the GoMex Explorer, in collaboration with ASU’s Decision Theater.

https://sustainability.asu.edu/biodiversityoutcomes/tools/

 Proposal Abstract - RFP-VI PI Beth Polidoro