Ecosystem Biology of Soil Polluted with Spent Engine Oil

Abstract

Soil communities, the microorganisms, are the initial and primary recipients of hydrocarbons or any xenobiotics incidented on the soil. This study evaluated the biology of soil organisms, ex-situ; the hydrocarbonclastics and non-hydrocarbonclastics, following an exposure to spent engine oil. The result demonstrated that at low and moderate contaminations of 1.5 and 2.5% w/w, hydrocarbons reduced the microbial population from control, 1.28 x109 cfu, to 3.42 x108 and 3.06 x 108cfu on week one respectively. However, at increased contaminations of 3.5% w/w, hydrocarbons from large oil spills weaken microbial ability to degrade the added hydrocarbons as the prejudicial nature reduced the population to 1.62 x 108cfu on week one. Overall, across the weeks, there was insurgence of hydrocarbon-degrading organisms, the hydrocarbonclastics, which on the other hand induced a limitation in microbial diversity. The isolated hydrocarbonclastic microorganisms in the descending order of their biodegradation potentials are: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Arthrobacter, Alealigena, Corynebacter, Flavo-bacterium, Archromobacter, Micrococcus, Norcardia and Myco-bacterium. Thus within the ecosystem they devised metabolic diversity with increased catabolic properties primarily aimed at biodegrading the xenobiotics; making them hydrocarbonclastic organisms.