Question: do oil spills affect plants as well as animals?

Isabel Webb answered on 20 Mar 2014:

For animals there are lots of obvious reasons that they are harmed by oil spills – it can stick to bird wings and stop them flying, or make animals stuck and unable to move and get food.

The chemicals in oil are also poisonous – to both plants and animals. If the oil gets onto the surface of the plant, the toxic chemicals can get into them and kill their cells. The oil also releases toxic gases, which can enter leaves in the same way carbon dioxide gets in, and can kill cells this way too. If the leaves die, the plant can’t photosynthesis and make food, so the whole plant dies.

Water plants rely on dissolved gases in the water, like oxygen and carbon dioxide. Oil blocks the surface of the water, and so the gases can’t get in and get to the plants. It could also block up rivers or streams, preventing fresh water reaching plants further along the river.

Oil spills are a major problem in the world – and it takes many hundreds of years for the animals and plants to be restored back to how they once were. We still don’t have an effective way of clearing up oil spills, and often the ways we do can make things even worse for the animals and plants living there.