In response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), and given the increased activities of the offshore oil industry, an international multidisciplinary consortium - the CIGOM Consortium - was funded by Mexico's Energy Secretariat (SENER) and its National Council for Science and Technology (CONACyT). Spanning 2015-2022, CIGOM's goals were to establish an environmental baseline to characterize the southern GOM’s natural variability and contribute to the understanding of ecosystem function, use cutting-edge technologies to observe the ocean, couple physical circulation and biogeochemical models to gain understating of oceanographic processes, generate oil spill scenarios using model ensembles and statistical techniques and conducting vulnerability assessments. Over 300 researchers participated in the CIGOM consortium's efforts.
The knowledge generated by the CIGOM Consortium is expected to provide the scientific foundations that can help to generate strategies for the prevention, attention, and mitigation of oil incidents in the Gulf. In addition, the consortium collaborative efforts contributed to filling various knowledge gaps regarding the system's oceanographic characteristics and ecosystem function, The goal of this Research Topic is to present results from the research produced by the CIGOM Consortium since its establishment in 2015, as well as research work produced as a result of other efforts relevant to the CIGOM Consortium's research objectives and oil spill preparedness throughout the system.
We invite contributions that lend novel insight into the Gulf of Mexico's ecosystem function by examining physical, biogeochemical, biological, and ecological processes, and that provide an integrative or comparative understanding of the entire GoM's ecosystem. We especially encourage contributions from interdisciplinary teams that make links between different processes. In addition, we encourage the submission of studies that present different tools and approximations for (1) informing decision-making and planning the response to large-scale oil spills in the basin, and (2) evaluating and mitigating its impacts. A range of article types will be considered, including: Original Research, Reviews, Mini Reviews, Data Reports, Brief Research Reports, as well as Perspective and Opinion pieces.
In response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), and given the increased activities of the offshore oil industry, an international multidisciplinary consortium - the CIGOM Consortium - was funded by Mexico's Energy Secretariat (SENER) and its National Council for Science and Technology (CONACyT). Spanning 2015-2022, CIGOM's goals were to establish an environmental baseline to characterize the southern GOM’s natural variability and contribute to the understanding of ecosystem function, use cutting-edge technologies to observe the ocean, couple physical circulation and biogeochemical models to gain understating of oceanographic processes, generate oil spill scenarios using model ensembles and statistical techniques and conducting vulnerability assessments. Over 300 researchers participated in the CIGOM consortium's efforts.
The knowledge generated by the CIGOM Consortium is expected to provide the scientific foundations that can help to generate strategies for the prevention, attention, and mitigation of oil incidents in the Gulf. In addition, the consortium collaborative efforts contributed to filling various knowledge gaps regarding the system's oceanographic characteristics and ecosystem function, The goal of this Research Topic is to present results from the research produced by the CIGOM Consortium since its establishment in 2015, as well as research work produced as a result of other efforts relevant to the CIGOM Consortium's research objectives and oil spill preparedness throughout the system.
We invite contributions that lend novel insight into the Gulf of Mexico's ecosystem function by examining physical, biogeochemical, biological, and ecological processes, and that provide an integrative or comparative understanding of the entire GoM's ecosystem. We especially encourage contributions from interdisciplinary teams that make links between different processes. In addition, we encourage the submission of studies that present different tools and approximations for (1) informing decision-making and planning the response to large-scale oil spills in the basin, and (2) evaluating and mitigating its impacts. A range of article types will be considered, including: Original Research, Reviews, Mini Reviews, Data Reports, Brief Research Reports, as well as Perspective and Opinion pieces.