Studying oil-degrading bacteria from the BP Deep Horizon Oil Spill
Microbes are the great decomposers of marine ecosystems, acting to breakdown natural organic matter and to release nutrients that can then be used by plants. Similar to the breakdown of natural organic matter, biodegradation mediated by microbes is the ultimate fate of the majority of spilled oil that enters the marine environment. The Kostka lab studies how fast and what controls the microbial degradation of oil in order to direct the management and cleanup of contaminated ecosystems. We also seek to identify key microbial groups that can be used as sentinels or bioindicators of oil contamination.
During response to the Deepwater Horizon discharge, scientists directed emergency responders by using oil plume models to predict where the oil would go. Microbial degradation of the oil is not included in most of these models, even though we know that a lot of the oil will be eaten by microbes. We have measured rates of biodegradation (how fast oil was degraded) in deep waters and sediments in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Thus, if there was an oil spill today, we could better predict where oil would go, since the model could include our measurements of the speed of biodegradation under different oceanographic conditions (different nutrient levels, for example).
Collaborators:
- David Hollander, University of South Florida in St. Petersburg, Florida
- Jeff Chanton and Markus Huettel, Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida
- Kostas Konstantindis, Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia
- David Hastings and Gregg Brooks, Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida
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