A recent study found oil and soot blanketing multiple areas of the seafloor in the Gulf of Mexico, seemingly inundating the microbes that usually consume oil and leaving behind dead benthic animals.
Above is an absorbing and important lecture by Dr. Peter Roopnarine from last year on the ecosystem impact of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Dr. Roopnarine does really interesting work on mollusks, extinction, and food webs.
[Video source: California Academy of Sciences, cc]
uncharted atolls 