Sedexsponge_Vulnerable habitats and species in petroleum resource management: impact of sediment exposure on Arctic sponge grounds

Drill cuttings, i.e. sediment and weighting agents, are released into the water column during oil drilling. The resulting plumes may smother vulnerable marine ecosystems in Norway such as cold-water corals and sponges. Within the projects DIACORA and SedExSponge, we use data from experiments to model the physiological impacts of the drill cutting exposure on corals and sponges by the Dynamic Energy Budget theory (DEB).