In this post, we briefly highlight the efforts of Mace G. Barron, a guest editor with the Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, who organized a virtual issue on research targeting oil spills, which is freely accessible during August 2017.

Ship skimming oil after Deepwater Horizon spill (photo by NOAA)

Most of us likely remember one of the largest environmental disasters of recent history: while drilling in the Macondo oil field in the Gulf of Mexico, an explosion on the ultra-deepwater drilling rig called “Deepwater Horizon” occurred, killing 11 workers. As a consequence of the fire, the platform sank after two days and oil was leaking from the reservoir directly into the Gulf of Mexico for several months, leading to the largest oil spill in recent history with emissions of millions of liters of oil per day.

This disaster raised substantial concerns amongst others about its implications in aquatic wildlife and the environment, in general stimulating research in many areas of the world and in particular in the U.S. To highlight the excellent work that has been published on this matter in the Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, Mace G. Barron organized a virtual issue. This virtual issue includes 24 papers published between 2012 and 2017 on various aspects related to the fate and effects of contaminants introduced into the aquatic environment by oil spills. It is important to stress that all papers included in this virtual issue can be freely accessed during August 2017 from the journal’s webpage.

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