DISL: Coordinator's DWH data

The Dauphin Island (Ala.) Sea Lab’s Discovery Hall Programs Outreach Coordinator Rachel McDonald's work conducting outreach on the Alabama Center for Ecological Resilience (ACER) consortium’s research is featured in a special issue of the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative’s (GoMRI) Current: The Journal of Marine Education. ACER is a research and outreach program funded by GoMRI, and focused on investigating the role biodiversity plays in the resilience to an ecological disturbance like the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The special Current issue, published by the National Marine Educators Association (NMEA), synthesizes the data from a variety of projects gathered in the wake of the oil spill. NMEA’s goal for the creation of this dedicated special issue was to give educators a way to explain the scientific process to their students by using the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill as an example. The special issue covers five areas of research including where currents carried the oil after the spill, the rain of oiled marine snow, the spill’s impacts on organisms and habitats, technological advancements resulting from devices and equipment used to study the spill, and a feature on data sharing, data transparency, and GoMRI’s Information and Data Cooperative. Along with Sara Beresford, Jessie Kastler, Dan Dinicola, and Katie Fillingham, McDonald contributed to the article titled, “Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Impacts on Organisms and Habitats”, highlighting the work of ACER’s science teams. McDonald helped in shaping the biology article with her input on coastal habitats. (Source: Dauphin Island Sea Lab 05/07/19)