By Sally Palmer

Several thousands of years ago, when the pharaohs ruled ancient Egypt, organic matter in the oceans like seagrass and by products of fish waste created during their time is just now breaking down and transferred back into the atmosphere.

Dissolved organic matter is one of the most stable sources of carbon there is and it can take several thousands of years to breakdown. Chemists at The University of Texas Marine Science Institute recently made a ground-breaking discovery about the shape and structure of this ancient type of carbon. In a

By Sally Palmer - The University of Texas Marine Science Institute

Harmful algal blooms, or red tides, can occur naturally, but new research indicates that after an oil spill, the application of dispersant may increase the chance of red tides. A new paper recently released in Environmental Science and Technologyprovides experimental evidence that oil and dispersant applications may open up a hole in the food web that toxic bloom-forming algae take the opportunity to fill.

When an oil spill occurs, they can disproportionally kill the single-

Liana Vaccari, a recent DROPPS graduate who receieved a PhD in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania (UPENN), was awarded the Christine Mirzayan Science & Technology Policy Graduate 2018 Fellowship. Liana will serve on the the Ocean Studies Board starting in January 2018. 

Laser light and high-speed cameras can help researchers observe the behavior of oil droplets within a laboratory-simulated oil plume and interpret how the oil subsequently may move through the water column.