Offshore Oceanographic and Environmental Monitoring Services for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve - Response to Decision Makers' Questions: Phytoplankton

The Department of Energy posed two questions concerning phytoplankton impacts. The first deals with the hypothetical case of 100% phytoplankton mortality and subsequent recovery with varying plume sizes. The second addresses our ability to discern change in the functional unit as differentiated from natural variation. These questions and our response are discussed at the end of this report following a discussion on phytoplankton community characteristics and the results of what we have found through our field study.