Final Report to the Oil Spill Recovery Institute
نویسنده
چکیده
Despite large-scale development on the North Slope, no recent studies examining Alaskan arctic marine sediment microbial communities and their ability to metabolize petroleum compounds have been published. Microbial degradation of spilled petroleum hydrocarbons is a major mechanism of removal of these compounds from the environment. In this study we initiated a survey of marine sediment microbial populations in the Arctic Ocean to determine what microorganisms are present and what their metabolic capability is for degradation of various petroleum hydrocarbons. We also began a series of laboratory studies to examine the bioavailability of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, phenanthrene, to microorganisms in the presence of sediments collected near Barrow, Alaska. In our survey we found high total numbers of microorganisms in the sediments examined (about 10 cells/g dry wt. sediment). Only about 10 of these organisms were culturable in a marine heterotroph medium. Most probable numbers of culturable phenanthrene and hexadecane degraders were fairly high, about 10/g dry wt. sediment each. Mineralization potentials were low for both hexadecane and phenanthrene. Despite the low organic carbon content of these sediments (≤ 1.5%), substantial adsorption to particles occurred; adsorption was rapid. Laboratory bioavailability studies using these same sediments are ongoing. The results of this study will be useful in predicting the fate of spilled petroleum hydrocarbons in the Arctic Ocean.
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