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Growth responses of Avicennia germinans and Batis maritima seedlings to weathered light sweet crude oil applied to soil and aboveground tissues

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Abstract

Oil spills are a significant stressor to coastal and maritime environments worldwide. The growth responses of Batis maritima and Avicennia germinans seedlings to weathered Deepwater Horizon oiling were assessed through a mesocosm study using a factorial arrangement of 4 soil oiling levels (0 L m−2, 1 L m−2, 2 L m−2, 4 L −m−2) × 3 tissue oiling levels (0% of stem height, 50% of stem height, 100% of stem height). Overall, growth metrics of B. maritima displayed much greater sensitivity to both tissue and soil oiling than A. germinans, which exhibited a relatively high tolerance to both routes of oiling exposure. Batis maritima in the 4 L m−2 soil oiling treatment demonstrated significant reductions in cumulative stem height and leaf number, whereas no significant effects of soil oiling on A. germinans were detected. This was reflected in the end of the study biomass partitioning, where total aboveground and live aboveground biomass were significantly reduced for B. maritima with 4 L m−2 soil oiling, but no impacts to A. germinans were found. Tissue oiling of 100% did appear to reduce B. maritima stem diameter, but no effect of tissue oiling was discerned on biomass partitioning, suggesting that there were no impacts to integrated growth. These findings suggest that B. maritima would be more severely affected by moderate soil oiling than A. germinans.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Dr. Quenton Fontenot for use of the Nicholls State University Farm Facility for housing the research.

Data availability

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Funding

This research was supported internally by the Applied Plant Science Laboratory at Nicholls State University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Applied Plant Sciences Laboratory, Department of Biological Sciences, Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, LA, 70310, USA

    William J. Heintz & Jonathan M. Willis

Authors
  1. William J. Heintz
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  2. Jonathan M. Willis
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Contributions

JW conceived the research; WH set up and executed the study and performed data collection; WH and JW equally contributed to statistical analysis and interpretation and the writing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jonathan M. Willis.

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The authors declare no competing interests

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Responsible Editor: Gangrong Shi

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Heintz, W.J., Willis, J.M. Growth responses of Avicennia germinans and Batis maritima seedlings to weathered light sweet crude oil applied to soil and aboveground tissues. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 66148–66159 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20458-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20458-w

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