More than a year since the BP oil spill devastated the Gulf of Mexico, Auburn is well represented as a professor has received a grant to continue research on the effects of the spill.
Ash Bullard, assistant professor of fisheries and allied aquacultures in the College of Agriculture, received $132,000 in grant funds from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative to continue his research on the ecosystem in the Gulf.
Bullard was one of only two people in Alabama to receive this grant and one of 17 in the nation to receive funding for research on the spill. Bullard said he feels honored and proud to represent Auburn on the Gulf.
"The best part about it is that Auburn University is on that list," Bullard said. "It's a really good thing when a university can show sustained funding to work on a certain topic."
Bullard and his team are sampling bacteria within tissue samples from fish and mud samples to test for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PAHs. Essentially, what the team can do is look at the biodiversity of the ecosystem to better understand this negative effect by the oil spill.
The team has been continuously collecting data from specific sites on the Gulf in hopes to better understand how the natural habitat was affected.
"By continuously monitoring different reference sites, you can see a change, either a decrease or increase of certain abnormalities," Bullard said.
Abnormalities that Bullard and his team will be looking for are changes in parasites, different sets of bacteria, and PAHs. Together, these sets of data may shed light on effects of the spill.
Bullard hopes to monitor these sites for the next 10 years so he can study the longterm effects on the ecosystem.
Bullard said it is great that there are so many people working down there, all in different fields of study, and everyone is looking to answer the broad question of whether the oil spill changed any natural aspect of the area.
Bullard is accompanied by two other researchers to study the spill: Covadonga Arias, associate professor of fisheries and allied aquacultures in the College of Agriculture, and Mike Unger, associate professor at Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences.
Each team member has a specific skill set to bring to the table. Bullard's expertise in pathology, Arias's in microbiology and Unger's in toxicology combine to make a super team ready to bring answers to the many questions surrounding this tragedy.
The current situation in the Gulf looks good, and there are hardly any signs of remaining oil.
"We've been down on the water for months, and we haven't seen any oil," Bullard said. "Things superficially appear to be normal, but that's why you have to look close."
Only time will tell the far-reaching effects of this spill and how much damage it has caused.
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