Diesel in Antarctica and a Bibliometric Study on Its Indigenous Microorganisms as Remediation Agent.

Rasidnie Razin Wong,Siti Aqlima Ahmad,Claudio Gomez-Fuentes,Noor Azmi Shaharuddin,Azham Zulkharnain,Zheng Syuen Lim

doi:10.3390/ijerph18041512

Abstract

Diesel acts as a main energy source to complement human activities in Antarctica. However, the increased expedition in Antarctica has threatened the environment as well as its living organisms. While more efforts on the use of renewable energy are being done, most activities in Antarctica still depend heavily on the use of diesel. Diesel contaminants in their natural state are known to be persistent, complex and toxic. The low temperature in Antarctica worsens these issues, making pollutants more significantly toxic to their environment and indigenous organisms. A bibliometric analysis had demonstrated a gradual increase in the number of studies on the microbial hydrocarbon remediation in Antarctica over the year. It was also found that these studies were dominated by those that used bacteria as remediating agents, whereas very little focus was given on fungi and microalgae. This review presents a summary of the collective and past understanding to the current findings of Antarctic microbial enzymatic degradation of hydrocarbons as well as its genotypic adaptation to the extreme low temperature.

Highlights

The ever-increasing Antarctic expeditions have rendered the environment more vulnerable to diesel pollution
One of the notable challenges in sustaining human presence in Antarctica is the enormous amount of energy required to empower transportation, research stations and activities concentrated at the coastal ice-free rocky areas
This review presents the dependency of diesel in Antarctica and its pollution effect on the environment, as well as bioremediation by Antarctic indigenous microorganisms, that was supported by a bibliometric study as a systematic approach

Summary

Introduction

The ever-increasing Antarctic expeditions have rendered the environment more vulnerable to diesel pollution. One of the notable challenges in sustaining human presence in Antarctica is the enormous amount of energy required to empower transportation, research stations and activities concentrated at the coastal ice-free rocky areas. This energy demand is typically met by producing energy with diesel combustion. The most common diesel contamination in Antarctica is descended from leakages during refuelling from a ship to a land-based facility, unmaintained fuel storage or pipe infrastructure and minor accidents in fuel handling processes. The extreme climate in the Southern Ocean has caused boating and aviation accidents, which led to fuel leakages in the Antarctic environments [2]

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