​Marine and gulf coast vegetation struggle with the impacts of chemical pollutants introduced in the ecosystem since the unnatural introductions create a shift in ecosystem behaviors. Plant life in salt water marshes serve the purpose of land retention by slowing the process of erosion, so when oil and other unnatural chemicals are introduced plants respond by ecosystem relationships (Lumibao et al. 2018). Impacts from pollutant exposure for oiling specifically have continues to affect the vegetation in the gulf because heavy exposure to chemical pollutants can result in toxicity of the soil and other earth/gulf floor matter the vegetation grow in (Mo, Kearney, & Riter 2017). Continued exposure to chemical pollutants can weaken or alter the vegetations if it is not completely killed off by the chemicals which would have detrimental impacts for other communities; danger posed to vegetation could mean micro-organism functions are put out of balance, the quickening of the erosion process could occur, and animals that rely on vegetation could suffer if plant life cannot recover sufficiently.