About the Authors

Annette Summers Engel

aengel1@utk.edu

Affiliations Department of Geology and Geophysics, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States of America, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States of America

Axita A. Gupta

Affiliation Department of Geology and Geophysics, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States of America

Competing Interests

Louisiana State University funded a portion of this study through a “Year One Block Grant,” within the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Research Program, using monies provided by BP Exploration and Production Inc. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: ASE AG. Performed the experiments: ASE AG. Analyzed the data: ASE AG. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: ASE. Wrote the paper: ASE AG. Conducted the field work: ASE AG.