Aims
The aim of this study was to investigate the dynamic changes in the bacterial structure and potential interactions of an acclimatized marine microbial community during a light crude oil degradation experiment.
Methods and Results
The bacterial community effectively removed 76·49% of total petroleum hydrocarbons after 30 days, as evidenced by GC‐FID and GC‐MS analyses. Short‐chain alkanes and specific aromatic compounds were completely degraded within the first 6 days. High‐throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA gene indicated that the starting bacterial community was mainly composed by Marinobacter and more than 30 non‐dominant genera. Bacterial succession was dependent on the hydrocarbon uptake with Alcanivorax becoming dominant during the highest degradation period. Sparse correlations for compositional data algorithm revealed one operational taxonomic unit (OTU) of Muricauda and an assembly of six OTUs of Alcanivorax dieselolei and Alcanivorax hongdengensis as critical keystone components for the consortium network maintenance and stability.
Conclusions
This work exhibits a stabilized marine bacterial consortium with the capability to efficiently degrade light crude oil in 6 days, under laboratory conditions. Successional and interaction patterns were observed in response to hydrocarbon consumption, highlighting potential interactions between Alcanivorax and keystone non‐dominant OTUs over time.
Significance and Impact of the Study
Our results contribute to the understanding of interactions and potential roles of specific members of hydrocarbonoclastic marine bacterial communities, which will be useful for further bioaugmentation studies concerning the associations between indigenous and introduced micro‐organisms.
A survey of intestinal helminth parasites of the gray snapper, Lutjanus griseus, collected at the estuarine coastal lagoon of Celestún and off the coast of the localities of Chelem and Progreso (Yucatán, Mexico) is presented together with a checklist of gray snapper intestinal helminths in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribben region. Twenty helminth species were found at the Yucatán localities. Eigth of these have previously been reported in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean region and 12 are new records for L. griseus, which increases the number of species recorded for gray snapper in the region to 44. Only 8 helminth species were recorded from fishes collected inside the coastal lagoon, while all 20 were found in fishes from offshore. Differences in species composition and infection parameters of each helminth species between both habitats are presented and discussed, together with similarities in species composition of the intestinal helminth fauna of L. griseus from Yucatán with those reported for the same host species in the Atlantic coast of USA, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean regions.
The tragic accident of the Macondo platform operated by British Petroleum (BP) unleashed in 2010 one of the largest oil spills in history, lasting over three months, spilling nearly 500 million liters of oil in one of the most biodiverse ocean regions. This accident revealed the technological deficiencies for the control of a spill in deep waters of the hydrocarbon industry. Simultaneously it showed important gaps in knowledge to predict the propagation and fate of the large volumes of hydrocarbons at depth and on the surface ocean and, more importantly, on their impact on the great ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico. The necessity to understand and predict the transport, fate and ecosystem-level impacts of large oil spills in the southern Gulf of Mexico, a key region for oil exploration and extraction, led policymakers, scientists, and industry representatives from PEMEX (the Mexican oil company) to jointly launch an ocean observation project (2015-22) aimed to provide a multi-layered environmental baseline, develop a modern monitoring and computational modeling capacity and promote scientific understanding of the marine environment throughout the Mexican Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The initiative, led by the Research Consortium for the Gulf of Mexico (CIGoM), brought together more than 300 multidisciplinary researchers from more than a two dozen institutions in Mexico and abroad, including the Centre for Scientific Research and Higher Education of Ensenada (CICESE) as the leading institution, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the Centre for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (CINVESTAV) in Mérida, the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC), and the Centre for Engineering and Industrial Development (CIDESI). Financial support was provided by the National Council for Science and Technology and the Ministry of Energy Hydrocarbon Fund.
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