Potential impact of the extensive oil spill on primary productivity in the Red Sea waters

Abstract

Red Sea is one of the world's major strategic shipping routes for crude oil transportation. Accidental spills of crude oil into the environmentally sensitive marine environments are known to impact the marine life. However, studies on direct assessment of oil spill on marine ecosystem, in particular on the primary productivity and bio-optical parameters in the Red Sea waters were poorly constrained owing to lack of sustained observations. Thus, in this study, an attempt has been made to use high spatial and temporal resolution of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) observations to monitor the oil spill explosion occurred on October 11, 2019, and its impact on the chlorophyll -a (Chl-a) concentrations. We noticed a significant increase in concentrations of Chl-a on the following day of oil spill. These changes are accounted for and are influenced by hydrocarbons along the track of oil spill. Our findings suggest that both wind speed and high Ekman pumping velocity support the upwelling of nutrient-rich water from subsurface, which facilitated the growth of phytoplankton and thus the high Chl-a in the oil spill areas.