Comment on "A persistent oxygen anomaly reveals the fate of spilled methane in the deep Gulf of Mexico"

Science. 2011 May 27;332(6033):1033; author reply 1033. doi: 10.1126/science.1203307.

Abstract

Kessler et al. (Reports, 21 January 2011, p. 312) reported that methane released from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout, approximately 40% of the total hydrocarbon discharge, was consumed quantitatively by methanotrophic bacteria in Gulf of Mexico deep waters over a 4-month period. We find the evidence explicitly linking observed oxygen anomalies to methane consumption ambiguous and extension of these observations to hydrate-derived methane climate forcing premature.

Publication types

  • Comment

MeSH terms

  • Atlantic Ocean
  • Biodegradation, Environmental
  • Biomass
  • Environmental Pollution*
  • Hydrocarbons / analysis
  • Hydrocarbons / metabolism
  • Methane / analysis
  • Methane / metabolism*
  • Oxidation-Reduction
  • Oxygen / analysis*
  • Oxygen Consumption
  • Petroleum*
  • Proteobacteria / growth & development
  • Proteobacteria / metabolism*
  • Seawater / chemistry
  • Seawater / microbiology*

Substances

  • Hydrocarbons
  • Petroleum
  • Methane
  • Oxygen