本文最初发表于《Inside Climate News》，属于“气候桌面”合作项目的一部分。
This story originally appeared on Inside Climate News and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
新研究得出结论：在墨西哥湾北部数百英里范围内，一场深海生态系统在2011年大规模的“深水地平线”漏油漏气事故后崩溃，其恢复前景尚不明朗。
Across hundreds of miles of the northern Gulf of Mexico, a deepwater ecosystem collapsed after the massive 2011 Deepwater Horizon oil and gas spill, and recovery is uncertain, new research concludes.
该研究周一发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》上，发现包括章鱼、磷虾、鱿鱼和虾在内的动物种群在事故发生后三年半内减少了60%至85%，此后鲜有恢复迹象。磷虾和灯笼鱼均为墨西哥湾食物网的基础物种，受创最重。研究结果还表明，这种大量死亡正导致基因瓶颈，可能进一步阻碍生态系统恢复。
The study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that animal populations—including octopus, krill, squid, and shrimp—declined by 60 to 85 percent in the three and a half years after the spill, with few signs of recovery since. Krill and lanternfish, both foundational species in the Gulf’s food web, were among the hardest hit. The findings also suggest that the die-off is causing genetic bottlenecks that could further hinder ecosystem recovery.
研究人员将其认定为“有记录以来地球最大生态系统类型中报告的最快、最严重的动物群落衰退”。海洋生物的大规模死亡还可能削弱海洋将二氧化碳从大气输送至深海的能力。在排除水温、含氧量等其他因素后，研究人员将“深水地平线”井喷认定为导致该生态系统崩溃的“最简明解释”。
The researchers identified it as the “fastest and most severe faunal decline reported for Earth’s largest ecosystem type” ever documented. The widespread die-off of marine organisms may also reduce the ocean’s ability to transport carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to the deep sea. After ruling out other factors, such as water temperature and oxygen levels, the researchers identified the Deepwater Horizon blowout as “the most parsimonious explanation” for the ecosystem’s collapse.
涉及联邦、州和部落受托人的综合自然资源损害评估及修复工作正在进行中。2016年，英国石油公司（BP）同意支付208亿美元和解金，其中包括最多88亿美元用于环境修复。
Comprehensive natural resource damage assessments and restoration efforts involving federal, state, and tribal trustees are ongoing. In 2016, BP agreed to a $20.8 billion settlement, including up to $8.8 billion for environmental restoration.
作者写道，远离海面数英里的深海深处和栖息地似乎免受人类活动影响，但他们的研究发现表明，一场工业灾难已将其部分区域推入衰退状态，具有“有限的恢复力来促进恢复”。他们表示，研究结果还表明，拟议中的工业深海采矿可能在基线条件得到评估之前就破坏生态系统。
Remote ocean depths and habitats miles below the surface may seem buffered from the impacts of human activity, the authors wrote, but their findings suggest an industrial disaster pushed part of it into a diminished state with “limited resilience to facilitate recovery.”They said their findings also show that proposed industrial deep-sea mining could damage the ecosystem before baseline conditions are assessed.
一座跨洋钻井平台在为英国石油公司（BP）作业时，于2010年4月20日在密西西比河三角洲东南约50英里处发生爆炸。爆炸和大火造成11人死亡，并引发了历史上最大的意外海洋石油泄漏事故。
A transoceanic drilling rig, operating for BP about 50 miles southeast of the Mississippi Delta, exploded on April 20, 2010. The explosion and fire killed 11 people and triggered the largest accidental marine oil spill in history.
石油和天然气从近一英里深的破损井口失控喷涌，持续了87天，共喷出490万桶石油，日均喷出量约相当于400辆罐车，足以装满120万辆汽车。泄漏还向深海释放了约77亿立方英尺的化石气体，日均释放量达8800万立方英尺，足以供应约82万户美国家庭使用。包括环境保护局（EPA）在内的州和联邦机构还授权英国石油公司施用了184万加仑化学分散剂，试图减轻影响。
Oil and gas spewed uncontrollably from the broken well nearly a mile deep for 87 days, ejecting 4.9 million barrels of oil at a rate of about 400 tanker trucks per day, enough to fill up 1.2 million cars. The spill also released about 7.7 billion cubic feet of fossil gas into the deep sea at a rate of 88 million cubic feet per day, enough to supply about 820,000 US homes. State and federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, also authorized BP to apply 1.84 million gallons of chemical dispersants to try to reduce the impacts.
部分石油和天然气消散并被输送出墨西哥湾深水区。部分覆盖了屏障岛，摧毁了沿海湿地和贝类栖息地，部分沉降至海底，海流可将其重新搅回水体。但足量的烃类和化学分散剂残留物在水体中悬浮了足够长的时间，造成了几乎无法估量的危害。
Some of the oil and gas dissipated and was transported out of the deep Gulf of Mexico region. Some coated barrier islands and devastated coastal wetlands and shellfish habitat, and some settled onto the ocean floor, where currents can stir it back into the water. But enough hydrocarbon and chemical-dispersant remnants stayed suspended long enough to do almost immeasurable harm.
泄漏事故发生以来的一系列研究显示，污染物对海洋生物产生了广泛的毒性影响，从发育和繁殖受损到死亡率增加，以及海豚和鲸鱼出现持久的健康问题。最新论文表明，残留污染物可能通过干扰某些物种高度发达的嗅觉，妨碍它们在黑暗中寻找配偶。
A series of studies since the spill have shown a wide range of toxic effects on marine organisms, from impaired development and reproduction to increased mortality and lasting health problems in dolphins and whales. The new paper suggests that lingering pollutants may interfere with some species’ ability to find mates in the dark by disrupting their highly developed sense of smell.
佛罗里达州诺瓦东南大学海洋与环境科学教授、首席作者特雷西·萨顿表示，影响仍在生态系统中持续扩散。他说，一项2024年的研究发现，深潜齿鲸数量下降了80%。
The impacts continue to ripple through the ecosystem, said lead author Tracey Sutton, a professor of marine and environmental sciences at Nova Southeastern University in Florida. A 2024 study found an 80 percent decline in deep-diving toothed whales, he said.
“我们过去在密西西比河口外海有一大群常驻的抹香鲸，但我们已经有10年没见过抹香鲸了，”他说。大型掠食者需要大片、偶尔出现的猎物密集区，而这些区域已经消失了，他补充道。
“We used to have a big resident population of sperm whales right off the Mississippi River, but we haven’t seen a sperm whale in 10 years,” he said. Large predators need big, occasional dense patches of prey, and those have disappeared, he added.
科学家们已经开发出准确的鱼类计数方法。在这项研究中，他们以2011年九个月采样的基线数据为起点，并将其与2015年至2023年间进行的九次后续调查进行了比较。研究人员在泄漏地点周围的一个大型网格区域内对深海中上层栖息地进行了采样，深度范围约为水面以下650英尺（约198米）至1英里（约1.6公里）深处。深海中上层区域约占墨西哥湾总水体体积的90%。
Scientists have developed accurate ways to count fish. For this study, they started with a baseline from nine months of sampling in 2011 and compared it with nine subsequent surveys between 2015 and 2023. The researchers sampled deep-pelagic habitat along a large grid around the spill site from about 650 feet below the surface to about a mile down. The deep-pelagic zone accounts for about 90 percent of the Gulf’s total volume.
在一系列采样站位组成的网格上，科学家们在湿滑的甲板上放下并收起可在不同深度开合的网具，来自不同物种组的专家负责鉴定捕获的生物。他们在中午和午夜前后进行采样，以涵盖每天进行垂直迁徙的物种。船载科学回声探测器提供了独立的核查手段，通过测量水体中海洋生物反射的声波来进行监测。
Across a grid of stations, scientists on slippery decks lowered and hoisted nets that open and close at different depths, with experts from different species groups to identify the catch. They sampled around noon and midnight to account for species that migrate vertically each day. Ship-mounted scientific echosounders provided an independent check, measuring sound reflected by marine life in the water column.
蒙特雷湾水族馆研究所高级科学家、海洋生物学家布鲁斯·罗比森通过电子邮件表示，这项研究“全面且设计周密”。“据我所知，没有其他研究拥有如此惊人的网具采样数量，”未参与这项新研究的罗比森补充道。
The research is “comprehensive and carefully composed,” marine biologist Bruce Robison, a senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, said via email. “There is no other study that I know of with such an incredible number of net samples,” added Robison, who did not participate in the new study.
他说，这项研究关注的是非商业捕捞物种，并首次表明，人类活动的影响甚至能耗尽极深海域的海洋生物。
The research focuses on species that are not commercially fished and shows for the first time that human impacts can deplete marine life even in very deep ocean water, he said.
“对公众来说，了解这次漏油事故究竟有多灾难性非常重要，”罗比森说。“墨西哥湾尚未恢复，而距离事故已过去15年多。”罗比森表示，其他活动，如深海采矿，也可能因排放含有金属或润滑剂的废水，对深海中上层生态系统造成严重的负面后果。
“It is important for the public to understand just how disastrous this oil spill was,” Robison said. “The Gulf has not recovered, and it’s been over 15 years.”Robison said other activities, such as deep-sea mining, could also have severe negative consequences for deepwater pelagic ecosystems by discharging wastewater containing metals or lubricants.
三条证据——网捕数据、声学调查和基因采样——相互印证，这是“异常有力的证据来支持他的结论”，夏威夷大学马诺阿分校海洋生态学家杰弗里·德拉岑表示，他未参与这项新研究。
Three lines of evidence—net hauls, acoustic surveys, and genetic sampling—corroborate each other, which is “unusually strong evidence to support his conclusions,” said Jeffrey Drazen, a marine ecologist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, who did not participate in the new study.
他说，该研究考察了所有可能的下降原因，并表明只有一种与科学证据相符。
The study examines all possible causes of the decline and shows only one aligns with the scientific evidence, he said.
“通过逻辑排除，”他说，“在并未直接指责的情况下，他们不留余地地表明漏油事故是导致下降的原因。”
“Through logical elimination,” he said, “and without actually pointing a finger, they leave no doubt that the oil spill is the cause of the decline.”