The University of Texas at Austin said in a news release Tuesday that the three-year, nearly $7 million grant will also help the institutions look at how oil affects the Gulf's ecology.
The grant is part of the $500 million Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative established by BP after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded last year, causing a massive oil spill.
Ed Buskey, marine science professor and lead investigator on the grant, says a goal is to figure out why the oil dispersed more quickly after that spill than it had after other comparable spills.
