Rapid recovery of coastal environment and ecosystem to the Hebei Spirit oil spill’s impact
The 2007 Hebei Spirit oil spill (HSOS), the largest in the national history, has negatively impacted the entire environment and ecosystem along the west coast of South Korea. Although many studies have reported the damages and impacts from the HSOS, quantitative assessment evaluating the recovery ti...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2020-03-01
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| Series: | Environment International |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412019332945 |
| _version_ | 1818316208742596608 |
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| author | Un Hyuk Yim Seongjin Hong Changkeun Lee Moonkoo Kim Jee-Hyun Jung Sung Yong Ha Joon Geon An Bong-Oh Kwon Taewoo Kim Chang-Hoon Lee Ok Hwan Yu Hyun Woo Choi Jongseong Ryu Jong Seong Khim Won Joon Shim |
| author_facet | Un Hyuk Yim Seongjin Hong Changkeun Lee Moonkoo Kim Jee-Hyun Jung Sung Yong Ha Joon Geon An Bong-Oh Kwon Taewoo Kim Chang-Hoon Lee Ok Hwan Yu Hyun Woo Choi Jongseong Ryu Jong Seong Khim Won Joon Shim |
| author_sort | Un Hyuk Yim |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The 2007 Hebei Spirit oil spill (HSOS), the largest in the national history, has negatively impacted the entire environment and ecosystem along the west coast of South Korea. Although many studies have reported the damages and impacts from the HSOS, quantitative assessment evaluating the recovery time and status have not been documented. Here, we first address the recovery timeline of the HSOS, by comprehensive analyses of 10-years accumulated data in quantitative manner. Concentrations of residual oils in seawater, sediments, and oysters rapidly dropped to backgrounds in 16, 75, and 33 months, respectively. Also, damaged benthic communities of intertidal and subtidal areas were fully recovered only after ~6 years. The present results collectively indicated unexpectedly fast recovery of the damaged environment and ecosystem from such a huge oil spill. The high tidal mixing (~9 m tidal height) and intensive human cleanup (~1.2 million volunteers) at the initial cleanup period might have contributed to rapid recovery; cf. 4–5 times faster than the Exxon Valdez oil spill. However, potential risk to human health remains unclear. Thus, it is warranted to conduct more in depth epidemiological studies to address chronic health effects associated with the cleanup volunteers as well as the local residents who have been living nearby the oil spill impacted sites. Keywords: Oil spill, Recovery, Benthic community, Human health, Crude oil, Sediments |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T09:17:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1ad29eb24db34604a0ee798755658aa3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0160-4120 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T09:17:47Z |
| publishDate | 2020-03-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environment International |
| spelling | doaj.art-1ad29eb24db34604a0ee798755658aa32022-12-21T23:52:48ZengElsevierEnvironment International0160-41202020-03-01136Rapid recovery of coastal environment and ecosystem to the Hebei Spirit oil spill’s impactUn Hyuk Yim0Seongjin Hong1Changkeun Lee2Moonkoo Kim3Jee-Hyun Jung4Sung Yong Ha5Joon Geon An6Bong-Oh Kwon7Taewoo Kim8Chang-Hoon Lee9Ok Hwan Yu10Hyun Woo Choi11Jongseong Ryu12Jong Seong Khim13Won Joon Shim14Oil and POPs Research Group, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST), Geoje 53201, Republic of KoreaDepartment of Ocean Environmental Sciences, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Republic of KoreaSchool of Earth and Environmental Sciences & Research Institute of Oceanography, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of KoreaOil and POPs Research Group, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST), Geoje 53201, Republic of KoreaOil and POPs Research Group, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST), Geoje 53201, Republic of KoreaOil and POPs Research Group, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST), Geoje 53201, Republic of KoreaOil and POPs Research Group, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST), Geoje 53201, Republic of KoreaSchool of Earth and Environmental Sciences & Research Institute of Oceanography, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of KoreaSchool of Earth and Environmental Sciences & Research Institute of Oceanography, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of KoreaEnvironmental Health & Safety Research Institute, EH R&C Co., Ltd., Incheon 22689, Republic of KoreaMarine Ecosystem and Biological Research Center, KIOST, Busan 49111, Republic of KoreaOceanographic Data Information Center, KIOST, Busan 49111, Republic of KoreaDepartment of Marine Biotechnology, Anyang University, Ganghwagun, Incheon 23038, Republic of KoreaSchool of Earth and Environmental Sciences & Research Institute of Oceanography, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea; Corresponding authors.Oil and POPs Research Group, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST), Geoje 53201, Republic of Korea; Corresponding authors.The 2007 Hebei Spirit oil spill (HSOS), the largest in the national history, has negatively impacted the entire environment and ecosystem along the west coast of South Korea. Although many studies have reported the damages and impacts from the HSOS, quantitative assessment evaluating the recovery time and status have not been documented. Here, we first address the recovery timeline of the HSOS, by comprehensive analyses of 10-years accumulated data in quantitative manner. Concentrations of residual oils in seawater, sediments, and oysters rapidly dropped to backgrounds in 16, 75, and 33 months, respectively. Also, damaged benthic communities of intertidal and subtidal areas were fully recovered only after ~6 years. The present results collectively indicated unexpectedly fast recovery of the damaged environment and ecosystem from such a huge oil spill. The high tidal mixing (~9 m tidal height) and intensive human cleanup (~1.2 million volunteers) at the initial cleanup period might have contributed to rapid recovery; cf. 4–5 times faster than the Exxon Valdez oil spill. However, potential risk to human health remains unclear. Thus, it is warranted to conduct more in depth epidemiological studies to address chronic health effects associated with the cleanup volunteers as well as the local residents who have been living nearby the oil spill impacted sites. Keywords: Oil spill, Recovery, Benthic community, Human health, Crude oil, Sedimentshttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412019332945 |
| spellingShingle | Un Hyuk Yim Seongjin Hong Changkeun Lee Moonkoo Kim Jee-Hyun Jung Sung Yong Ha Joon Geon An Bong-Oh Kwon Taewoo Kim Chang-Hoon Lee Ok Hwan Yu Hyun Woo Choi Jongseong Ryu Jong Seong Khim Won Joon Shim Rapid recovery of coastal environment and ecosystem to the Hebei Spirit oil spill’s impact Environment International |
| title | Rapid recovery of coastal environment and ecosystem to the Hebei Spirit oil spill’s impact |
| title_full | Rapid recovery of coastal environment and ecosystem to the Hebei Spirit oil spill’s impact |
| title_fullStr | Rapid recovery of coastal environment and ecosystem to the Hebei Spirit oil spill’s impact |
| title_full_unstemmed | Rapid recovery of coastal environment and ecosystem to the Hebei Spirit oil spill’s impact |
| title_short | Rapid recovery of coastal environment and ecosystem to the Hebei Spirit oil spill’s impact |
| title_sort | rapid recovery of coastal environment and ecosystem to the hebei spirit oil spill s impact |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412019332945 |
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