Replies

New microbe discovered eating Gulf oil spill

‘Great potential’ for dispersing oil in deep sea, researchers report

msnbc.com staff and news service reports - updated 8/24/2010 1:49:10 PM ET

A newly discovered type of oil-eating microbe suddenly is flourishing in the Gulf of Mexico and gobbling up the BP spill at a much faster rate than expected, scientists reported Tuesday.

Scientists discovered the new microbe while studying the underwater dispersion of millions of gallons of oil spilled since the explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.
Also, the microbe works without significantly depleting oxygen in the water, researchers reported in the online journal Sciencexpress.

“Our findings ... suggest that a great potential for intrinsic bioremediation of oil plumes exists in the deep-sea,” lead researcher Terry Hazen, a microbial ecologist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in Berkeley, California, said in a statement.

The data is also the first ever on microbial activity from a deep-water dispersed oil plume, Hazen said.

Environmentalists have raised fears about the giant oil spill and the underwater plume of dispersed oil, particularly its potential effects on sea life. A report just last week described a 22-mile-long underwater mist of tiny oil droplets.

“Our findings show that the influx of oil profoundly altered the microbial community by significantly stimulating deep-sea” cold temperature bacteria that are closely related to known petroleum-degrading microbes, Hazen reported.

Their findings are based on more than 200 samples collected from 17 deep-water sites between May 25 and June 2. They found that the dominant microbe in the oil plume is a new species, closely related to members of Oceanospirillales.

This microbe thrives in cold water, with temperatures in the deep recorded at 41 degrees Fahrenheit.

Hazen suggested that the bacteria may have adapted over time due to periodic leaks and natural seeps of oil in the Gulf..... (snip)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38834330/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf/

I think what you had with this spill was a synergistic effect between this previously unknown bacteria, and the sea-floor use of dispersant. The use of dispersant breaks oil down into minute (mostly microscopic) droplets (micelles) of oil. The HUGE increase of available surface area resulting from the decrease in average droplet size made far more oil easily available to the bacteria, such that their population increased far more rapidly than usual.

This lays out an interesting option for future spills, which is to deliberately introduce both dispersant and cultured bacteria, even further accelerating the process. I doubt that the bacteria would survive if mixed directly with the dispersant, but introducing them as a second flow-stream is certainly possible.