Biodegradation of crude oil and dispersants in deep seawater from the Gulf of Mexico: Insights from ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry

Seidel, Michael; Kleindienst, Sara; Dittmar, Thorsten; Joye, Samantha B.; Medeiros, Patricia M.

doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2015.05.012

Cited by 44 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…The three main ingredients of Corexit 9500A are light petroleum distillates (50%), glycols (40%), and dioctyl sulfosuccinate (DOSS) (10%) (13). All of these ingredients have previously been shown to serve as substrates for microbial growth (14)(15)(16). The stimulation of cell growth by Corexit 9500A is therefore not surprising, and similar findings have been reported elsewhere (17)(18)(19).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 59%

Potential for Microbially Mediated Natural Attenuation of Diluted Bitumen on the Coast of British Columbia (Canada)

Schreiber

Fortin

Tremblay

et al. 2019

Appl Environ Microbiol

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Western Canada produces large amounts of bitumen, a heavy, highly weathered crude oil. Douglas Channel and Hecate Strait on the coast of British Columbia are two water bodies that may be impacted by a proposed pipeline and marine shipping route for diluted bitumen (dilbit). This study investigated the potential of microbial communities from these waters to mitigate the impacts of a potential dilbit spill. Microcosm experiments were set up with water samples representing different seasons, years, sampling stations, and dilbit blends. While the alkane fraction of the tested dilbit blends was almost completely degraded after 28 days, the majority of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) remained. The addition of the dispersant Corexit 9500A most often had either no effect or an enhancing effect on dilbit degradation. Dilbit-degrading microbial communities were highly variable between seasons, years, and stations, with dilbit type having little impact on community trajectories. Potential oil-degrading genera showed a clear succession pattern and were for the most part recruited from the “rare biosphere.” At the community level, dispersant appeared to stimulate an accelerated enrichment of genera typically associated with hydrocarbon degradation, even in dilbit-free controls. This suggests that dispersant-induced growth of hydrocarbon degraders (and not only increased bioavailability of oil-associated hydrocarbons) contributes to the degradation-enhancing effect previously reported for Corexit 9500A. IMPORTANCE Western Canada hosts large petroleum deposits, which ultimately enter the market in the form of dilbit. Tanker-based shipping represents the primary means to transport dilbit to international markets. With anticipated increases in production to meet global energy needs, the risk of a dilbit spill is expected to increase. This study investigated the potential of microbial communities naturally present in the waters of a potential dilbit shipping lane to mitigate the effects of a spill. Here we show that microbial degradation of dilbit was mostly limited to n-alkanes, while the overall concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which represent the most toxic fraction of dilbit, decreased only slightly within the time frame of our experiments. We further investigated the effect of the oil dispersant Corexit 9500A on microbial dilbit degradation. Our results highlight the fact that dispersant-associated growth stimulation, and not only increased bioavailability of hydrocarbons and inhibition of specific genera, contributes to the overall effect of dispersant addition.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 59%

Potential for Microbially Mediated Natural Attenuation of Diluted Bitumen on the Coast of British Columbia (Canada)

Schreiber

Fortin

Tremblay

et al. 2019

Appl Environ Microbiol

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“…No significant change in EHSS concentrations was observed in CEWAF (± nutrients) treatments (SI Appendix, Fig. S18B), indicating that DOSS was converted to other products, an observation supported by formation of sulfur-containing compounds detected by ultrahigh-resolution Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS) (38) (Fig. 4 D and E).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…The WAF treatments exhibited the highest rates of degradation of oil-derived nitrogen-containing compounds (∼8% vs. ∼1% in the CEWAF treatment, Fig. 4 A and D) (38). In the WAF treatments, protein synthesis rates significantly exceeded those in the dispersant-amended treatments (T 4 : P = 0.0002), and a 31% decrease of seawater-and oil-derived dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) concentrations showed that the generation of microbial biomass required significant rates of nitrogen assimilation (SI Appendix, Table S1).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical dispersants can suppress the activity of natural oil-degrading microorganisms

Kleindienst

Seidel

Ziervogel

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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264

283

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During the Deepwater Horizon oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, the application of 7 million liters of chemical dispersants aimed to stimulate microbial crude oil degradation by increasing the bioavailability of oil compounds. However, the effects of dispersants on oil biodegradation rates are debated. In laboratory experiments, we simulated environmental conditions comparable to the hydrocarbon-rich, 1,100 m deep plume that formed during the Deepwater Horizon discharge. The presence of dispersant significantly altered the microbial community composition through selection for potential dispersant-degrading Colwellia, which also bloomed in situ in Gulf deep waters during the discharge. In contrast, oil addition to deepwater samples in the absence of dispersant stimulated growth of natural hydrocarbon-degrading Marinobacter. In these deepwater microcosm experiments, dispersants did not enhance heterotrophic microbial activity or hydrocarbon oxidation rates. An experiment with surface seawater from an anthropogenically derived oil slick corroborated the deepwater microcosm results as inhibition of hydrocarbon turnover was observed in the presence of dispersants, suggesting that the microcosm findings are broadly applicable across marine habitats. Extrapolating this comprehensive dataset to real world scenarios questions whether dispersants stimulate microbial oil degradation in deep ocean waters and instead highlights that dispersants can exert a negative effect on microbial hydrocarbon degradation rates.

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“…Data from ultra-high-resolution mass spectrometry documented that oilderived organic matter could serve as a nutrient source (namely N) for oil degradation in deep waters collected near an active Gulf of Mexico hydrocarbon seep (Kleindienst et al, 2015b;Seidel et al, 2016). Finally, a metagenomic time series from coastal sediments exposed to oil from the DWH discharge shows that the abundance of genes associated with nutrient scavenging (nitrogen fixation, iron chelation) correlates positively with the abundance of genes for hydrocarbon catabolism (Rodriguez-R et al, 2015).…”

Section: Regulation Of Microbial Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some complex hydrocarbons contain nitrogen and sulfur residues (Seidel et al, 2016), as well as metalloids; oxygen is introduced into hydrocarbons during biodegradation and weathering (Aeppli et al, 2012). The major hydrocarbon classes include sat…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Responses of Microbial Communities to Hydrocarbon Exposures

Joye¹,

Kleindienst²,

Gilbert³

et al. 2016

Oceanog

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Biodegradation of crude oil and dispersants in deep seawater from the Gulf of Mexico: Insights from ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry

Cited by 44 publications

References 46 publications

Potential for Microbially Mediated Natural Attenuation of Diluted Bitumen on the Coast of British Columbia (Canada)

Potential for Microbially Mediated Natural Attenuation of Diluted Bitumen on the Coast of British Columbia (Canada)

Chemical dispersants can suppress the activity of natural oil-degrading microorganisms

Responses of Microbial Communities to Hydrocarbon Exposures

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