PREFACE 



The marine ecosystem overlying the Texas-Louisiana continental 

 shelf area has been subjected to development of oil and gas resources 

 since 1938, and is now one of the most intensively developed offshore 

 areas in the world. Biological investigations of this area also have a 

 long history, dating from the late 1800's. The purpose of this paper is 

 to provide a first-order, holistic overview of the ecological systems of 

 this area of the shelf and to describe the apparent effects of oil and 

 gas development activities on the system. 



The ecosystem is first characterized in terms of its major forcing 

 functions, characteristic biological assemblages, and some of the known 

 or suspected trophic processes considered to be of most importance. 

 Following this section is a review of the impacts of oil and gas 

 development on system components as they are known. The final section 

 discusses the need for process-oriented studies as a basis for 

 evaluating system-level impacts, (as opposed to conventional baseline 

 studies of system components) and it is recommended that attempts be 

 made to model the assimilative capacity of the ecosystem in question. 



Comments or requests for this publication should be addressed to: 

 Information Transfer Specialist 

 National Coastal Ecosystems Team 

 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

 NASA-Slidell Computer Complex 

 1010 Gause Blvd. 

 Slidell, LA 70458 

 (504) 255-6511, FTS 685-6511 



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