The Delta Bulrush and the Gulf Oil Spill

Academy botanist Dr. Alfred Ernest Schuyler is proposing that a common plant could prove useful in cleaning up after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The delta bulrush, Schoenoplectus deltarum, is abundant along the outer edges of delta marshes in Louisiana. Together with other wetlands plants, the delta bulrush helps protect the coast from storm damage, removes some of the silt and pollution coming down the Missippippi River, and provides vital habitat for birds, fish, and shellfish.

Although valuable in these respects, Dr. Schuyler believes this plant may also help in clean-up efforts for the current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Research on close relatives of the delta bulrush revealed that these plants are both tolerant of pollution and help in its removal. “Bulrushes are environmental workhorses, effectively used in sewage lagoons to purify water,” Dr. Schuyler explains. “Air cavities in the stems transport oxygen to underwater portions of the plants, making the oxygen available to microbes capable of decomposing pollutants in the sewage.” Bulrushes can also help underwater microbes detoxify oil.

In addition, these plants may be critical in the recovery of impacted wetlands. “Bulrushes are also more tolerant of oil than many other marsh plants. This suggests that the delta bulrush will persist regardless of the oil and continue to stabilize the marshes in the delta.”

The ability of the delta bulrush itself to both tolerate oil and help in its detoxification deserves future study, but in the meantime, this plant should be treated as a useful ally against the spill. Dr. Schuyler recommends harvesting oil-coated plants to just below the oil line. “This will protect waterfowl from the oil and also will allow regrowth from their basal portions,” adding that the bulrush seeds can be removed from the harvested plants and put back into the mud.