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Ecological And Indigenous Community Impacts Of Oil Spill Mortality In Alaskan Marine Ecosystems, Paul M. Suprenand, Carie Hoover, Cameron H. Ainsworth, L. Dornberger, C. J. Johnson

Marine Science Faculty Publications

While hydrocarbon exploration and extraction in the Arctic ebbs and flows, reduced sea ice has opened new travel routes across the Arctic. The opening of the Northwest Passage has allowed larger ships (including oil tankers) and higher traffic into remote regions. More ice loss is expected in the future. With this comes the potential for hydrocarbon spills. To quantify the ecosystem impacts of a spill in the Alaska North Slope region, an Ecospace model using the Ecopath with Ecosim software was developed. We highlight the impacts of four potential hydrocarbon contamination scenarios: a subsurface crude oil pipeline release, a surface …