The Deepwater Horizon oil spill of April 2010 lasted for three months and leaked an estimated 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Although the well was plugged in July, the extent of the damage to the Gulf and to coastal regions of Louisiana and Mississippi is still being assessed.

Now, researchers at the University of Connecticut are helping the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determine the amount of ecological damage caused by the spill. Using technology and expertise found in only a few laboratories nationwide, the team is assessing the toxic effects of the oil on Gulf of Mexico colonial waterbirds (birds that nest in colonies or groups).

“Shorebirds are sentinels for ecological health,” says Michael Willig, director of UConn’s Center for Environmental Sciences and Engineering (CESE). Because these birds often travel long distances and use many different types of habitats, he says, a decline in their health can not only threaten their own populations, but signal degradation of entire ecosystems.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has begun working through the National Resource Damage Assessment process to assess the damage caused by the spill and to compensate the public for the loss of any natural resources. The oil corporation responsible for the spill, BP, is funding the effort.

Ecologists and toxicologists from the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Biodiversity Research Institute, a scientific research and policy group involved in the assessments, are currently collecting shorebirds living along the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi, including such species as pelicans, oystercatchers, and sandpipers. They are assessing the extent of oil present on the exterior of the bird, measuring features of its general physiological health, and taking a small blood sample – about the equivalent of 10 drops of ink – to be sent to UConn for chemical assessment.

In the UConn lab, Anthony Provatas, a CESE project scientist, tests the samples for 16 different toxic compounds, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, that bear the signature of Louisiana light crude, the type of oil spilled into the Gulf, and the signature of chemical dispersants used to diffuse the oil. Christopher Perkins, director of CESE’s Environmental Chemistry Laboratories, likens the tests to routine blood work done by your family doctor, but with much smaller amounts to work with and much greater consequences.

“Chemicals from this spilled oil are poisonous and can be acutely toxic,” says Perkins. “In the long-term, these would accumulate in the animal’s fat. But since blood cells have a lifespan of approximately 30 days, we can determine short-term exposure.” This short-term snapshot, he adds, allows the researchers to isolate blood chemicals that are a direct result of the oil spill.

The methods used to assess these chemicals were developed specifically for this process; since this was such a specialized case, the researchers “had no recipe to follow,” notes Provatas. Further, the Biodiversity Research Institute chose UConn to perform these assessments out of only a handful of laboratories in the world that could have taken on this request, says Willig.

“At CESE, we have the advanced instrumentation necessary to do this work with a high level of precision, the expertise to interpret the results, and robust quality control,” Willig says. “Our results could stand up in a court of law, which they might have to do.”

In all, the laboratory will receive about 350 samples. Once all these samples are analyzed, the UConn team will work with the Biodiversity Research Institute to pair the blood toxicity levels with measurements of the birds’ general health to make predictions about the spill’s effects. The two groups will then report their results to the Fish and Wildlife Service, which will use the data to perform a natural resources damage assessment, including how much money will be needed to restore the birds’ habitat to its pre-spill state.

The researchers have a narrow window of time in which to complete their surveys, since the oil signatures in the birds’ bloodstreams won’t last more than a month.

Willig says that laboratories like CESE are essential in just these times of emergency.

“To address these questions, we have to have the infrastructure in place before the emergency,” he says. “Our lab was ready to respond, and we can be agile in responding to the agency’s needs.”

Perkins adds that these kinds of experiences are exceptional opportunities for students who work in the laboratory, and that this work has gained the interest of many undergraduates. Even equipment suppliers, such as Waters Inc., have recognized the importance and urgency of this work, donating generous amounts of in-kind supplies and guidance to the team.

And, he says, it’s pretty exciting for him too: “It’s rewarding doing this work, because all of a sudden it has an automatic connection with people and the real bigger picture.”