Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Fluctuating Asymmetry In Menidia Beryllina Before And After The 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Savannah A. Michaelsen, Jacob F. Schaefer, Mark S. Peterson

Faculty Publications

Assessing the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill with a dependable baseline comparison can provide reliable insight into environmental stressors on organisms that were potentially affected by the spill. Fluctuating asymmetry (small, non-random deviations from perfect bilateral symmetry) is an informative metric sensitive to contaminants that can be used to assess environmental stress levels. For this study, the well-studied and common Gulf of Mexico estuarine fish, Menidia beryllina, was used with pre and post-oil spill collections. Comparisons of fluctuating asymmetry in three traits (eye diameter, pectoral fin length, and pelvic fin length) were made pre and post-oil spill …