RF- Akvamiljø is pioneering work on the impact of offshore oil and gas activities on Arctic waters. The research center specializes in environmental research on the aquatic environment - around 70% of its work is oil industry related, according to Troels Jacobsen, senior vice president for the environment.
Most of the 30 staff at RF - Akvamiljø’s research facility outside Stavanger is part of Rogaland Research’s marine environment group, while a small number are employed by Akvamiljø a/s, a private company. A third affiliate is Akvamiljø Caspian AS, based in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The center has a full range of operative facilities, some unique, for undertaking cold water research. These include an eco-toxological laboratory, radio tracer laboratory, and a laboratory for chemistry analyses. Other key facilities are climate rooms and systems for exposing marine organisms to different substances in static or continuous flow mode.
The need for such research becomes increasingly important as the oil industry begins to focus more closely on areas such as the Barents Sea off northern Norway and northwest Russia. Last year’s lifting of an embargo on offshore activities in the Norwegian Barents has opened the way to a renewal of exploration drilling accompanied unfortunately by a few accidental discharges. On the production front, Statoil is well advanced with development of the Snøhvit field, while in the Russian sector, the Prirazlomnoye field is close to coming onstream and the giant Shtokman gas field is moving closer to development.
In parallel, there are moves within the industry to raise the profile of environmental research. In June, the first annual Statoil Arctic Environment Conference was held on Svalbard, with a speaker from RF - Akvamiljø a/s.
RF - Akvamiljø's wide range of research facilities includes exposure systems, as pictured here.
The latter’s involvement in Arctic Ocean research goes back many years. It is currently involved in the development of biomarkers for monitoring the effects of pollution caused by offshore oil and gas operations and participates in numerous international biomarker validation projects.
Biomarkers represent an important advance in environmental monitoring, Jacobsen says. Traditionally, such monitoring relies either on chemical analysis of the water, which gives uncertain results due to the very low concentrations of oil-related substances. The alternative is the biodiversity approach based on the measurement of marine populations, which has the drawback of detecting the impact of pollution only after it has affected the population.
Biomarkers offer the possibility of giving early warning of the effects of pollution. Originally developed in a medical context, they are used to monitor the state of health of organisms, for example, by measuring enzyme activity or detecting the presence of different proteins. Such monitoring can indicate whether the organism is under stress or not.
“The emphasis on biomarkers is more and more a recognition that we should examine what is happening to organisms rather than what is present in the water,” Jacobsen says.
One current project using the biomarker approach is the BioSea joint industry project, which Akvamiljø a/s is managing on behalf of Eni and Total. Both these companies have license interests in the Norwegian Barents, with Eni planning to appraise its Goliat discovery this year. The project is examining the sensitivity of some selected biomarkers and their possible link to ecologically important effects, following exposure to oil of typical species in both the Barents and the North Sea.
RF - Akvamiljø is also in the middle of two three-year projects funded by the Research Council of Norway (RCN)that focus on the impact of spilled oil in cold waters. One concerns the possible role played by ultraviolet (UV) light, which is present for long periods in far northern areas during the summer months. Its potential effects may be serious. It is known that as oil degrades in the sea, UV light increases the toxicity of the products a hundredfold. Little research has previously been done into the combined effects of UV light and oil on marine organisms of these northern regions, according to senior research scientist Thierry Baussant.
The project is examining the possible effects on adults and early life stages of some key species that live near the surface including Atlantic cod, polar cod, pink shrimp, and a shrimp-like amphipod, Gammarus wilkitzkii, by means of exposure to simulated conditions. The effects are being measured in various ways, for example, through mortality rates and through the examination of some biological markers of genetic alterations following intake of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a group of potent compounds found in oil.
The second project is researching the possible effect of spilled oil drifting into the arctic ice margin. While in ice-free waters, spilled oil is usually degraded relatively quickly, thereby reducing the risk of long-lasting effects in pelagic organisms. At the ice margin it may become trapped and released only gradually over several years during the brief summer season period when part of the ice melts. This is also the time of year when the local aquatic species reproduce, says Baussant.
The project involves the exposure in simulated laboratory conditions of Gammarus wilkitzkii, which plays a key role in the ice margin ecosystem.
In its work, RF - Akvamiljø has adopted other relatively new methods developed in human biology research, such as proteomics, the study of proteins. The advantage of such tools is that they are sensitive, providing early warning of protein changes to the environment that affect marine species, Jacobsen says.•
