An Assessment of Marine Ecosystem Damage from the Penglai 19-3 Oil Spill Accident

Oil spills have immediate adverse effects on marine ecological functions. Accurate assessment of the damage caused by the oil spill is of great significance for the protection of marine ecosystems. In this study the observation data of <i>Chaetoceros</i> and shellfish before and after the Penglai 19-3 oil spill in the Bohai Sea were analyzed by the least-squares fitting method and radial basis function (RBF) interpolation. Besides, an oil transport model is provided which considers both the hydrodynamic mechanism and monitoring data to accurately simulate the spatial and temporal distribution of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) in the Bohai Sea. It was found that the abundance of <i>Chaetoceros</i> and shellfish exposed to the oil spill decreased rapidly. The biomass loss of <i>Chaetoceros</i> and shellfish are <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>7.25</mn><mo>×</mo><msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow><mrow><mn>14</mn></mrow></msup><mo>~</mo><mn>7.28</mn><mo>×</mo><msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow><mrow><mn>14</mn></mrow></msup><mrow><mo> </mo><mi>ind</mi></mrow></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>2.30</mn><mo>×</mo><msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow><mrow><mn>12</mn></mrow></msup><mo>~</mo><mn>2.51</mn><mo>×</mo><msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow><mrow><mn>12</mn></mrow></msup><mrow><mo> </mo><mi>ind</mi></mrow></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> in the area with TPH over 50 mg/m³ during the observation period, respectively. This study highlights the evaluation of ecological resource loss caused by the oil spill, which is useful for the protection and restoration of the biological resources following the oil spill.