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The effect of dispersed Petrobaltic oil droplet size on photosynthetically active radiation in marine environment

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Abstract

Oil pollution in seawater, primarily visible on sea surface, becomes dispersed as an effect of wave mixing as well as chemical dispersant treatment, and forms spherical oil droplets. In this study, we examined the influence of oil droplet size of highly dispersed Petrobaltic crude on the underwater visible light flux and the inherent optical properties (IOPs) of seawater, including absorption, scattering, backscattering and attenuation coefficients. On the basis of measured data and Mie theory, we calculated the IOPs of dispersed Petrobaltic crude oil in constant concentration, but different log-normal size distributions. We also performed a radiative transfer analysis, in order to evaluate the influence on the downwelling irradiance E d , remote sensing reflectance R rs and diffuse reflectance R, using in situ data from the Baltic Sea. We found that during dispersion, there occurs a boundary size distribution characterized by a peak diameter d 0  = 0.3 μm causing a maximum E d increase of 40 % within 0.5-m depth, and the maximum E d decrease of 100 % at depths below 5 m. Moreover, we showed that the impact of size distribution on the “blue to green” ratios of R rs and R varies from 24 % increase to 27 % decrease at the same crude oil concentration.

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Notes

  1. Kamila Haule published before as Kamila Rudź.

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Acknowledgments

Kamila Haule was supported by the grant no. UMO-2012/05/N/ST 10/03707 while Włodzimierz Freda was supported by the grant no. UMO-2012/07/D/ST 10/02865, both funded by the National Science Centre (NCN) of Poland. Additionally, this paper was partially supported by the Academic Computer Centre in Gdańsk. Moreover, the authors would like to thank Sławomir Sagan, Mirosław Darecki, Monika Woźniak, Jacek Piskozub and Henryk Toczek for making optical data available as well as for their advice and valuable comments.

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  1. Department of Physics, Gdynia Maritime University, ul. Morska 81-87, 81-225, Gdynia, Poland

    Kamila Haule & Włodzimierz Freda

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  1. Kamila Haule
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  2. Włodzimierz Freda
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Correspondence to Kamila Haule.

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Haule, K., Freda, W. The effect of dispersed Petrobaltic oil droplet size on photosynthetically active radiation in marine environment. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 6506–6516 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5886-4

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