The Impacts of Oil Spills on Marine and Terrestrial Ecosystems Essay Example for Free

The Impacts of Oil Spills on naval and Terrestrial Eco administrations EssayBuy custom Impacts of Oil Spills on Marine and Terrestrial Ecosystems essay In this paper am going to examine the factors contributing to crude rock fossil oil color spills, and their effects on marine and terrestrial ecosystems. This addition of phytoplankton leads to depletion of group O levels in piddle, making it hard for survival of animal and plant population in the water. These oil spills do not only affect the marine system but also the chronic urban contamination and the economic loss. The oil spill has total effect on marine spirit despite the standof searchness from the oil spill. The closer the oil spill is to the shoreline, the more damage it causes.The effects are also felt toward the offshore and the coastal environment. Oil spill is an unintended or intentional release of liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment. The environment is onshore or offshore leading to polluti on. Mostly the key pathway of oil spills is with the marine oil spills. In this pathway, oil is released into the aquatic environment. The process is by dint of spills from tankers drilling rigs and wells. Naturally oil may enter the marine life through oil seeps. The effects of oil spills are in many cases long-term effects. The short-term effects, though, can also be disastrous.Oil spills are dependant on wind and currents for faster spreading. When oil mixes with the water, it forms a sticky substance known as mousse. This substance clings to whatever it comes into contact with since it is sticky. Some marine animals mis nurse it for food. Birds ordinarily have a hard time flying after coming into contact with the mousse. The mousse makes the birds feather heavier, making it impossible for the bird to fly consequently drowning. The bird also becomes vulnerable to predators since it cannot fly. Predators that feed on these dead birds also end up dying due to inebriation by th e mousse (McCoy Salerno, 2010).The oil enters into the plumage structure of the bird and reduces the insulation capability. The bird is thus exposed to temperature fluctuations and less buoyant in water. The birds ingest the oil on the feathers, and this causes kidney damage and conk out of the liver. A very small percent of birds exposed to oil spills survives unless there is an intervention by a human (Peter Smithson, 2002). The marine mammals that are largely affect by oil spills consists of the Seals, sea lions, diametral bears, sea otters, whales, dolphins, and manatees.This is due to their adaptation main power in fur and blubber. The mammals living in a coldness environment are mostly touch by hypothermia. Other effects include organ malfunction due to toxic exposure. The organ malfunction consists of interstitial emphysema gastrointestinal ulceration. The mammals encounter a lot of stress due to restriction of diet and continuous exposure to oil. Seals are highly vuln erable to oil spills since they spend much of their feeding time near the climb up of the water. Fur seals are exposed to oil adhering to the fur. The adhering leads to the fur loosing insulation ability.The oil coating on fur seals results also in reduction in swimming ability and a lowered mobility of the seals on land. The seals are also bear on by poisoning caused by feeding on already contaminated prey and inhalation of oil droplets. Sea otters usually spend their time on the water surface and are totally dependant on fur for isolation and float ability. The famous Exxon Valdez disaster is blamed to be the main cause of 15,000 otters, due to breathing in of oil. Polar bears depend on blubber and a thick under fur for insulation. They often groom their fur.While grooming oil contaminated fur, polar bears may swallow oil, resulting to death due to intoxication. The intoxication damages the kidney and lowers the ability to produce red blood cells in polar bears. Whales are rare ly affected by oil spills as they are always on migration. Baleen whales are the only whales affected as oil stick to the whales when they are filtering their feed. They take a large amount of water in order to select their catch. A dolphin is a smooth-skinned and hairless mammal. Therefore, there is less possibility of oil sticking to their skins.In this case, the dolphins are affected by the inhalation of oil vapor. The inhalation damages the dolphins airways and lungs. The other minor effect is the dolphins eyesight and unending stress. Manatees and dugong are found in areas with warm waters also depend on a layer of blubber for insulation. Their effect by oil spills is interchangeable to that of the dolphins. Oil spills damages the turtle airways when they surface on top of water contaminated by oil slick. Their feed is affected also affected by oil spills and thus poisons the turtles. The areas that the turtles nest in the beaches are sandy.Oil contamination on the nesting sit es leads to contamination of the eggs inhibiting proper development. Fish, one of the largest populations in the marine life ingest oil through their gills. This ingestion often leads to enlargement of the liver and reproduction capacity. In the Gulf of Mexico, there is an alarming rate at which the look for are dying due to the effect of oil spills and contamination. The death of fish is due to skin lesions, fin rot and liver blood clots in the fish surrounding the environment (Margaret Judith, 2010). The only effect on shellfish is not direct.The effect is indirect, since the affected is the person feeding on the shellfish. Shellfish exposure to oil spills leads them to acquiring an extremely unpleasant taste and makes it impossible to be eaten. The effects of oil spills on plants vary with every species of plant. The most common effect in all the species is the coating effect. This is because almost all plants depend on their leaves for production of food. The coating of oil on the leaves makes it impossible for the plant to have proper deepen of gas with the environment and production of food.This effect leads to slower growth rate of plants and in some cases quick death of the plant. Oil spills contamination leads to the death of algae and plankton. The large number of plants dying leads to excessive addition of ammonia and nitrites in the water. Conversely, levels of dissolved oxygen lower just as the pH levels. The changes in water chemical composition lead to toxicity of environment as a whole. Oil spills contribute in extremely large portion of polluting the environment. Proper legal profession should be put in place to avoid such mess. The measure accounts from government policies proper and self-regulatory measures per each person.This can be achieved through proper statement of the society on the dangers of oil spill pollution and strict government policy to ensure that person complies. The hotel industry should also be cautious with the ins tance of sea food that they sell. Proper Seafood Sensory Training is recommended for them to enable them detect oil in seafood. Float oil barriers should be used around the affected area, especially the ones with strong currents. Any incidence of oil spillage leads to possible death of either the marine animal or plants. Therefore, the source of this pollution should be dealt with as it may take many years to clean the effect.