Over one year has passed since the BP-Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, yet we still have little understanding of its ecological impacts. Here, we report decline of a critical ecosystem service in Louisiana marshes following covering by oil, not because of the direct mortality of marsh communities, but because of subsequent increased erosion rates in impacted areas. As theory predicts, marsh communities displayed resilience to oil disturbance, as plant regrowth began within 6 months. However, we found unexpected and deleterious indirect effects as erosion rates on the edges of impacted marshes increased by 140% due to concentration of oil on the marsh edge, leading to accelerated marsh losses that are likely to be permanent. These results challenge the widely held theory that salt marshes experience minimal long-term impacts from oil spills and reveal decline of valuable shoreline protection services as one consequence of this large-scale disturbance.
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