Composition and fate of gas and oil released to the water column during the
            <i>Deepwater Horizon</i>
            oil spill

Reddy, Christopher M.; Arey, J. Samuel; Seewald, Jeffrey S.; Sylva, Sean P.; Lemkau, Karin L.; Nelson, Robert K.; Carmichael, Catherine A.; McIntyre, Cameron; Fenwick, Judith; Ventura, G. Todd; Mooy, Benjamin A. S. Van; Camilli, Richard

doi:10.1073/pnas.1101242108

Cited by 609 publications

(539 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…At the expense of overall community richness, the DWH plume enriched specific microbial populations and reduced microbial diversity. Although specific organisms and/or populations potentially thrived under plume conditions, such as high concentrations of short-chain alkanes Supplementary Table S1), longer alkanes, PAH (Reddy et al, 2012) and dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate (Kujawinski et al, 2011), other components of the microbial population exhibited reduced abundance, fell below detection, or potentially became inactive and/or died both at the wellhead and downstream of it. In contrast, the highest numbers of bacterial OTUs were observed in after-discharge samples from a prolific natural methane plume at seep, GC600 (18-POST-GC600; 1640 OTUs).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Early in the DWH discharge, the hydrocarbonimpacted deep-sea waters hosted significantly enriched bacterial populations related to Oceanospirillum, Cycloclasticus, Colwellia, Pseudoalteromonas, Rhodobacterales and methylotrophs Reddy et al, 2012;Redmond and Valentine, 2012;Valentine et al, 2012). In situ observations and laboratory findings signal that these bacteria played key roles in the biodegradation of oil in the plume.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Early during the DWH incident, before the damaged riser pipe was cut, hydrocarbon injection into the water column occurred as a pronounced jet that emerged from the broken riser pipe, altering deepwater chemistry in the vicinity of the Macondo wellhead. The jet of oil and gas ascending into the water column entrained cold seawater (Johansen et al, 2001;Socolofsky et al, 2011) and generated a prolific hydrocarbon-rich deepwater plume that was detected to the southwest of the well by its fluorescence signature (Camilli et al, 2010;Diercks et al, 2010;Hazen et al, 2010), and light scattering profile (Diercks et al, 2010), as well as by elevated concentrations of specific hydrocarbons (Camilli et al, 2010;Diercks et al, 2010;Valentine et al, 2010;Joye et al, 2011;Kessler et al, 2011b;Reddy et al, 2012) and of the dispersant Corexit (Kujawinski et al, 2011). The deepwater plume spanned depths between 1000 and 1300 m, in a region at least 35 km long by 2 km wide (Camilli et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diverse, rare microbial taxa responded to the Deepwater Horizon deep-sea hydrocarbon plume

et al. 2015

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The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil well blowout generated an enormous plume of dispersed hydrocarbons that substantially altered the Gulf of Mexico's deep-sea microbial community. A significant enrichment of distinct microbial populations was observed, yet, little is known about the abundance and richness of specific microbial ecotypes involved in gas, oil and dispersant biodegradation in the wake of oil spills. Here, we document a previously unrecognized diversity of closely related taxa affiliating with Cycloclasticus, Colwellia and Oceanospirillaceae and describe their spatio-temporal distribution in the Gulf's deepwater, in close proximity to the discharge site and at increasing distance from it, before, during and after the discharge. A highly sensitive, computational method (oligotyping) applied to a data set generated from 454-tag pyrosequencing of bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA gene V4-V6 regions, enabled the detection of population dynamics at the sub-operational taxonomic unit level (0.2% sequence similarity). The biogeochemical signature of the deep-sea samples was assessed via total cell counts, concentrations of short-chain alkanes (C 1 -C 5 ), nutrients, (colored) dissolved organic and inorganic carbon, as well as methane oxidation rates. Statistical analysis elucidated environmental factors that shaped ecologically relevant dynamics of oligotypes, which likely represent distinct ecotypes. Major hydrocarbon degraders, adapted to the slow-diffusive natural hydrocarbon seepage in the Gulf of Mexico, appeared unable to cope with the conditions encountered during the DWH spill or were outcompeted. In contrast, diverse, rare taxa increased rapidly in abundance, underscoring the importance of specialized subpopulations and potential ecotypes during massive deep-sea oil discharges and perhaps other large-scale perturbations.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diverse, rare microbial taxa responded to the Deepwater Horizon deep-sea hydrocarbon plume

et al. 2015

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“…n = 75 (initial), n = 25 (heavy methane), n = 69 (light methane), n = 44 (heavy methane), n = 81 (light methane), n = 43 (heavy methane), n = 78 (light methane), n = 84 (heavy methane), and n = 76 (light benzene). [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]2010). Sample locations are shown on the map in Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Natural gas and temperature structured a microbial community response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Redmond

Valentine

2011

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

353

379

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Microbial communities present in the Gulf of Mexico rapidly responded to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In deep water plumes, these communities were initially dominated by members of Oceanospirillales, Colwellia, and Cycloclasticus. None of these groups were abundant in surface oil slick samples, and Colwellia was much more abundant in oil-degrading enrichment cultures incubated at 4°C than at room temperature, suggesting that the colder temperatures at plume depth favored the development of these communities. These groups decreased in abundance after the well was capped in July, but the addition of hydrocarbons in laboratory incubations of deep waters from the Gulf of Mexico stimulated Colwellia's growth. Colwellia was the primary organism that incorporated 13 C from ethane and propane in stable isotope probing experiments, and given its abundance in environmental samples at the time that ethane and propane oxidation rates were high, it is likely that Colwellia was active in ethane and propane oxidation in situ. Colwellia also incorporated 13 C benzene, and Colwellia's abundance in crude oil enrichments without natural gas suggests that it has the ability to consume a wide range of hydrocarbon compounds or their degradation products. However, the fact that ethane and propane alone were capable of stimulating the growth of Colwellia, and to a lesser extent, Oceanospirillales, suggests that high natural gas content of this spill may have provided an advantage to these organisms. methane | biodegradation | marine bacteria | archaea | alkane

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“…This is interesting from the point of view that members of this group are often strongly selected for in oil-impacted environments where they can increase in numbers from near undetectable levels to constituting up to 70-90% of the total bacterial community (Harayama et al, 2004;Head et al, 2006;Yakimov et al, 2007). Based on the knowledge that Alcanivorax preferentially degrade branched-and/or straight-chain saturated hydrocarbons (Kasai et al, 2002a;Head et al, 2003) that constitute a large fraction of light crude oils, such as the one that entered into the Gulf of Mexico from the leaky Macondo MC 252 well (Reddy et al, 2012), members of this genus could be expected to have bloomed during the DWH spill. Using SIP and cultivation-based methods, we identified a number of Alcanivorax phylotypes in both surface slick and plume water samples, hence, revealing that members of this genus were present in the water column during the spill.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria enriched by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill identified by cultivation and DNA-SIP

et al. 2013

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The massive influx of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico during the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) disaster triggered dramatic microbial community shifts in surface oil slick and deep plume waters. Previous work had shown several taxa, notably DWH Oceanospirillales, Cycloclasticus and Colwellia, were found to be enriched in these waters based on their dominance in conventional clone and pyrosequencing libraries and were thought to have had a significant role in the degradation of the oil. However, this type of community analysis data failed to provide direct evidence on the functional properties, such as hydrocarbon degradation of organisms. Using DNA-based stable-isotope probing with uniformly 13 C-labelled hydrocarbons, we identified several aliphatic (Alcanivorax, Marinobacter)-and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (Alteromonas, Cycloclasticus, Colwellia)-degrading bacteria. We also isolated several strains (Alcanivorax, Alteromonas, Cycloclasticus, Halomonas, Marinobacter and Pseudoalteromonas) with demonstrable hydrocarbon-degrading qualities from surface slick and plume water samples collected during the active phase of the spill. Some of these organisms accounted for the majority of sequence reads representing their respective taxa in a pyrosequencing data set constructed from the same and additional water column samples. Hitherto, Alcanivorax was not identified in any of the previous water column studies analysing the microbial response to the spill and we discuss its failure to respond to the oil. Collectively, our data provide unequivocal evidence on the hydrocarbondegrading qualities for some of the dominant taxa enriched in surface and plume waters during the DWH oil spill, and a more complete understanding of their role in the fate of the oil.

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Composition and fate of gas and oil released to the water column during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Cited by 609 publications

References 24 publications

Diverse, rare microbial taxa responded to the Deepwater Horizon deep-sea hydrocarbon plume

Diverse, rare microbial taxa responded to the Deepwater Horizon deep-sea hydrocarbon plume

Natural gas and temperature structured a microbial community response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria enriched by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill identified by cultivation and DNA-SIP

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