Abstract
Oil spill pollution remains a serious concern in marine environments and the development of effective oil bioremediation techniques are vital. This work is aimed at developing an autochthonous hydrocarbon-degrading consortium with bacterial strains with high potential for hydrocarbons degradation, optimizing first the growth conditions for the consortium, and then testing its hydrocarbon-degrading performance in microcosm bioremediation experiments. Bacterial strains, previously isolated from a sediment and cryopreserved in a georeferenced microbial bank, belonged to the genera Pseudomonas, Rhodococcus and Acinetobacter. Microcosms were assembled with natural seawater and petroleum, for testing: natural attenuation (NA); biostimulation (BS) (nutrients addition); bioaugmentation with inoculum pre-grown in petroleum (BA/P) and bioaugmentation with inoculum pre-grown in acetate (BA/A). After 15 days, a clear blending of petroleum with seawater was observed in BS, BA/P and BA/A but not in NA. Acetate was the best substrate for consortium growth. BA/A showed the highest hydrocarbons degradation (66%). All bacterial strains added as inoculum were recovered at the end of the experiment. This study provides an insight into the capacity of autochthonous communities to degrade hydrocarbons and on the use of alternative carbon sources for bacterial biomass growth for the development of bioremediation products to respond to oil spills.
Highlights
Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research of the University of Porto, Novo Edifício do Terminal de Cruzeiros do Porto de Leixões, Avenida General Norton de Matos, S/N, 4450-208 Matosinhos, Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar, University of Porto, Rua de Jorge Viterbo Ferreira, 228, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal
mixture of the five strains (MIX), latter was selected fo no significantdifferences differences observed observed between and MIX, thethe latter one one was selected for further studiesas as we assumed a consortium of 5 bacterial strains strains presentspresents higher highe further studies assumedthat that a consortium of 5 bacterial potential for bioremediation experiments than a single strain
Of the microcosm experiment the for the different treatments: natural attenuation (NA), biostimulation (BS), bioaugmentation with inoculum pre-grown in petroleum (BA/P) and bioaugmentation with inoculum pre-grown in acetate (BA/A). a—significant differences between
Summary
Oil spill pollution remains a serious concern in marine environments and the development of effective oil bioremediation techniques are vital. This work is aimed at developing an autochthonous hydrocarbon-degrading consortium with bacterial strains with high potential for hydrocarbons degradation, optimizing first the growth conditions for the consortium, and testing its hydrocarbon-degrading performance in microcosm bioremediation experiments. This study provides an insight into the capacity of autochthonous communities to degrade hydrocarbons and on the use of alternative carbon sources for bacterial biomass growth for the development of bioremediation products to respond to oil spills. Marine environments are at constant risk of oil spills [1], especially in coastal areas, where maritime transportation often share routes [2]. Valdez (1989) oil spills are some examples that have marked history for their high negative impact on the environment and marine wildlife. The main problematic inherent to the spillage of crude oil or petroleum is its complex composition, a mixture of alkanes, aromatic hydrocarbons, resins and asphaltenes [5], in which some components can be recalcitrant and extremely toxic to marine organisms [6,7]
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