Oil is no longer spewing from the damaged Deepwater Horizon drilling site, but how the oil that is already spilled will continue to effect Gulf ecosystems is largely unknown. Ian MacDonald, a professor of oceanography at Florida State, shared his thoughts during an Aug. 1 interview on NPR.

“The question is: Will the Gulf of Mexico, as a result of this, be a less productive ecosystem?” MacDonald said. “And if the productivity and the biodiversity were to be diminished by a few percentage points — 10 percent, 15 percent — that might be very hard to document. Nonetheless, this would be an effect. And if you stretched it out over several years, it would be a severe effect on the ecosystem and the wellbeing of the people that depend on this ecosystem.”

MacDonald also suggested that any fines paid by “should be put in a permanent trust to assess, to understand, and to sustain the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem for the future generations.”

Read a transcript of the interview here.