Self‐healing capacity of deep‐sea ecosystems affected by petroleum hydrocarbons

Abstract

A rich microbiota in the deep‐sea oceans has evolved to live off petroleum from natural oil seeps. Understanding their ecology and biology could inform measures for sustainable bioremediation of artificial oil spills.

Structure and composition of microbial communities in the water column from Southern Gulf of Mexico and detection of putative hydrocarbon‐degrading microorganisms

“…Hence, the presence of hydrocarbon‐degrading taxa in the YS area under low TPHs concentration can be associated with the potential of hydrocarbon‐degrading bacteria to degrade extra‐membrane compounds such as polysaccharides (Dombrowski et al, 2016 ; Love et al, 2013 ; Marine, 2017 ). Alternatively, the low input of crude oil from natural seeps and routine oil transport operations stimulates the growth of microorganisms specialised in oil degradation (Mapelli et al, 2017 ; Scoma et al, 2017 ; Won et al, 2017 ).…”

Enhanced Hydrocarbons Biodegradation at Deep-Sea Hydrostatic Pressure with Microbial Electrochemical Snorkels

“…Similarly, long-term exposure to petroleum may favor the evolutionary microbial adaptation to the fast, effective use of oil as a carbon and energy source. A better understanding of the metabolic requirements for sustained oil biodegradation at increased HP may be found at, e.g., deep hydrocarbon seeps [37] or chronically polluted deep-sea sites following anthropogenic spills. As the snorkel's application for longer incubations (>1 year) efficiently reduced TPHs at ambient pressure [14,15], electrobioremediation of the most recalcitrant petroleum components should be tested with deep-sea samples from these long-term contaminated sites.…”

Integrating Shotgun Metagenomics, 16s Rrna Gene Metabarcoding and Culture Approaches: A Better Outlook for Functional Profiling of a Pah-Contaminated Soil

“…The understanding of microbial functional and phylogenetic diversity within a contaminated niche has been recommended as critical for risk assessments, microbial monitoring and for designing bioremediation strategies as a consistent approach to clean up environmental pollutants (Gosai et al, 2018). To face anthropogenic contamination, exploring indigenous microbial communities adapted to these environments over long periods of time is expected to provide significant information (Scoma et al, 2017). This implies advanced methodologies like molecular tools able to provide in-depth understanding about the aspects of microbial processes and survival under stressed environment (Mishra et al, 2021).…”