Oil-Spill Triggered Shift in Indigenous Microbial Structure and Functional Dynamics in Different Marine Environmental Matrices.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Neethu CS
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6361881 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Sandy beaches support a wide variety of underappreciated biodiversity that is critical to coastal ecosystems. Prior to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the diversity and function of supratidal beach sediment microbial communities along Gulf of Mexico coastlines were not well understood. As such, it was unclear if microbial community compositional changes would occur following exposure to beached oil, if indigenous communities could biodegrade oil, or how cleanup efforts, such as sand washing and sediment redistribution, would impact microbial ecosystem resiliency. Transects perpendicular to the shoreline were sampled from public beaches on Grand Isle, Louisiana, and Dauphin Island, Alabama, over one year. Prior to oil coming onshore, elevated levels of bacteria associated with fecal contamination were detected (e.g., Enterobacteriales and Campylobacterales). Over time, significant shifts within major phyla were identified (e.g., Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria) and fecal indicator groups were replaced by taxa affiliated with open-ocean and marine systems (e.g., Oceanospirillales, Rhodospirillales, and Rhodobacterales). These new bacterial groups included putative hydrocarbon degraders, similar to those identified near the oil plume offshore. Shifts in the microbial community composition strongly correlated to more poorly sorted sediment and grain size distributional changes. Natural oceanographic processes could not account for the disrupted sediment, especially from the backshore well above the maximum high-tide levels recorded at these sites. Sand washing and tilling occurred on both open beaches from August through at least December 2010, which were mechanisms that could replace fecal indicator groups with open-ocean groups. Consequently, remediation efforts meant to return beaches to pre-spill compositions caused a regime shift that may have added potential ecosystem function, like hydrocarbon degradation, to the sediment. Future research will need to assess the persistence and impact of the newly formed microbial communities to the overall sandy beach ecosystems.
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Project description:This paper explores whether private markets can incentivize environmental stewardship. We examine the consumer response to the 2010 BP oil spill and test how BP's investment in the 2000-2008 "Beyond Petroleum" green advertising campaign affected this response. We find evidence consistent with consumer punishment: BP station margins and volumes declined by 2.9 cents per gallon and 4.2 percent, respectively, in the month after the spill. However, pre-spill advertising significantly dampened the price response, and may have reduced brand switching by BP stations. These results indicate that firms may have incentives to engage in green advertising without investments in environmental stewardship.
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Project description:Three crude oil bioremediation techniques were applied in a randomized block field experiment simulating a coastal oil spill. Four treatments (no oil control, oil alone, oil plus nutrients, and oil plus nutrients plus an indigenous inoculum) were applied. In situ microbial community structures were monitored by phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis and 16S rDNA PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) to (i) identify the bacterial community members responsible for the decontamination of the site and (ii) define an end point for the removal of the hydrocarbon substrate. The results of PLFA analysis demonstrated a community shift in all plots from primarily eukaryotic biomass to gram-negative bacterial biomass with time. PLFA profiles from the oiled plots suggested increased gram-negative biomass and adaptation to metabolic stress compared to unoiled controls. DGGE analysis of untreated control plots revealed a simple, dynamic dominant population structure throughout the experiment. This banding pattern disappeared in all oiled plots, indicating that the structure and diversity of the dominant bacterial community changed substantially. No consistent differences were detected between nutrient-amended and indigenous inoculum-treated plots, but both differed from the oil-only plots. Prominent bands were excised for sequence analysis and indicated that oil treatment encouraged the growth of gram-negative microorganisms within the alpha-proteobacteria and Flexibacter-Cytophaga-Bacteroides phylum. alpha-Proteobacteria were never detected in unoiled controls. PLFA analysis indicated that by week 14 the microbial community structures of the oiled plots were becoming similar to those of the unoiled controls from the same time point, but DGGE analysis suggested that major differences in the bacterial communities remained.
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Project description:The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill in the spring of 2010 resulted in an input of ?4.1 million barrels of oil to the Gulf of Mexico; >22% of this oil is unaccounted for, with unknown environmental consequences. Here we investigated the impact of oil deposition on microbial communities in surface sediments collected at 64 sites by targeted sequencing of 16S rRNA genes, shotgun metagenomic sequencing of 14 of these samples and mineralization experiments using (14)C-labeled model substrates. The 16S rRNA gene data indicated that the most heavily oil-impacted sediments were enriched in an uncultured Gammaproteobacterium and a Colwellia species, both of which were highly similar to sequences in the DWH deep-sea hydrocarbon plume. The primary drivers in structuring the microbial community were nitrogen and hydrocarbons. Annotation of unassembled metagenomic data revealed the most abundant hydrocarbon degradation pathway encoded genes involved in degrading aliphatic and simple aromatics via butane monooxygenase. The activity of key hydrocarbon degradation pathways by sediment microbes was confirmed by determining the mineralization of (14)C-labeled model substrates in the following order: propylene glycol, dodecane, toluene and phenanthrene. Further, analysis of metagenomic sequence data revealed an increase in abundance of genes involved in denitrification pathways in samples that exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s benchmarks for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) compared with those that did not. Importantly, these data demonstrate that the indigenous sediment microbiota contributed an important ecosystem service for remediation of oil in the Gulf. However, PAHs were more recalcitrant to degradation, and their persistence could have deleterious impacts on the sediment ecosystem.
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Project description:The Deepwater Horizon blowout released a massive amount of oil and gas into the deep ocean between April and July 2010, stimulating microbial blooms of petroleum-degrading bacteria. To understand the metabolic response of marine microorganisms, we sequenced ≈ 66 million community transcripts that revealed the identity of metabolically active microbes and their roles in petroleum consumption. Reads were assigned to reference genes from ≈ 2700 bacterial and archaeal taxa, but most assignments (39%) were to just six genomes representing predominantly methane- and petroleum-degrading Gammaproteobacteria. Specific pathways for the degradation of alkanes, aromatic compounds and methane emerged from the metatranscriptomes, with some transcripts assigned to methane monooxygenases representing highly divergent homologs that may degrade either methane or short alkanes. The microbial community in the plume was less taxonomically and functionally diverse than the unexposed community below the plume; this was due primarily to decreased species evenness resulting from Gammaproteobacteria blooms. Surprisingly, a number of taxa (related to SAR11, Nitrosopumilus and Bacteroides, among others) contributed equal numbers of transcripts per liter in both the unexposed and plume samples, suggesting that some groups were unaffected by the petroleum inputs and blooms of degrader taxa, and may be important for re-establishing the pre-spill microbial community structure.
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Project description:One of the major environmental concerns of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was the ecological impact of the oil that reached shorelines of the Gulf Coast. Here we investigated the impact of the oil on the microbial composition in beach samples collected in June 2010 along a heavily impacted shoreline near Grand Isle, Louisiana. Successional changes in the microbial community structure due to the oil contamination were determined by deep sequencing of 16S rRNA genes. Metatranscriptomics was used to determine expression of functional genes involved in hydrocarbon degradation processes. In addition, potential hydrocarbon-degrading Bacteria were obtained in culture. The 16S data revealed that highly contaminated samples had higher abundances of Alpha- and Gammaproteobacteria sequences. Successional changes in these classes were observed over time, during which the oil was partially degraded. The metatranscriptome data revealed that PAH, n-alkane, and toluene degradation genes were expressed in the contaminated samples, with high homology to genes from Alteromonadales, Rhodobacterales, and Pseudomonales. Notably, Marinobacter (Gammaproteobacteria) had the highest representation of expressed genes in the samples. A Marinobacter isolated from this beach was shown to have potential for transformation of hydrocarbons in incubation experiments with oil obtained from the Mississippi Canyon Block 252 (MC252) well; collected during the Deepwater Horizon spill. The combined data revealed a response of the beach microbial community to oil contaminants, including prevalence of Bacteria endowed with the functional capacity to degrade oil.
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Project description:The Deepwater Horizon blowout, which occurred on April 20, 2010, resulted in an unprecedented oil spill. Despite a complex effort to cap the well, oil and gas spewed from the site until July 15, 2010. Although a large proportion of the hydrocarbons was depleted via natural processes and human intervention, a substantial portion of the oil remained unaccounted for and impacted multiple ecosystems throughout the Gulf of Mexico. The depth, duration and magnitude of this spill were unique, raising many questions and concerns regarding the fate of the hydrocarbons released. One major question was whether or not microbial communities would be capable of metabolizing the hydrocarbons, and if so, by what mechanisms and to what extent? In this review, we summarize the microbial response to the oil spill as described by studies performed during the past four years, providing an overview of the different responses associated with the water column, surface waters, deep-sea sediments, and coastal sands/sediments. Collectively, these studies provide evidence that the microbial response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was rapid and robust, displaying common attenuation mechanisms optimized for low molecular weight aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons. In contrast, the lack of evidence for the attenuation of more recalcitrant hydrocarbon components suggests that future work should focus on both the environmental impact and metabolic fate of recalcitrant compounds, such as oxygenated oil components.
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Project description:Benthic habitats harbour a significant (yet unexplored) diversity of microscopic eukaryote taxa, including metazoan phyla, protists, algae and fungi. These groups are thought to underpin ecosystem functioning across diverse marine environments. Coastal marine habitats in the Gulf of Mexico experienced visible, heavy impacts following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, yet our scant knowledge of prior eukaryotic biodiversity has precluded a thorough assessment of this disturbance. Using a marker gene and morphological approach, we present an intensive evaluation of microbial eukaryote communities prior to and following oiling around heavily impacted shorelines. Our results show significant changes in community structure, with pre-spill assemblages of diverse Metazoa giving way to dominant fungal communities in post-spill sediments. Post-spill fungal taxa exhibit low richness and are characterized by an abundance of known hydrocarbon-degrading genera, compared to prior communities that contained smaller and more diverse fungal assemblages. Comparative taxonomic data from nematodes further suggests drastic impacts; while pre-spill samples exhibit high richness and evenness of genera, post-spill communities contain mainly predatory and scavenger taxa alongside an abundance of juveniles. Based on this community analysis, our data suggest considerable (hidden) initial impacts across Gulf beaches may be ongoing, despite the disappearance of visible surface oil in the region.
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Project description:The Persian Gulf, hosting ca. 48% of the world's oil reserves, has been chronically exposed to natural oil seepage. Oil spill studies show a shift in microbial community composition in response to oil pollution; however, the influence of chronic oil exposure on the microbial community remains unknown. We performed genome-resolved comparative analyses of the water and sediment samples along Persian Gulf's pollution continuum (Strait of Hormuz, Asalouyeh, and Khark Island). Continuous exposure to trace amounts of pollution primed the intrinsic and rare marine oil-degrading microbes such as Oceanospirillales, Flavobacteriales, Alteromonadales, and Rhodobacterales to bloom in response to oil pollution in Asalouyeh and Khark samples. Comparative analysis of the Persian Gulf samples with 106 oil-polluted marine samples reveals that the hydrocarbon type, exposure time, and sediment depth are the main determinants of microbial response to pollution. High aliphatic content of the pollution enriched for Oceanospirillales, Alteromonadales, and Pseudomonadales whereas, Alteromonadales, Cellvibrionales, Flavobacteriales, and Rhodobacterales dominate polyaromatic polluted samples. In chronic exposure and oil spill events, the community composition converges towards higher dominance of oil-degrading constituents while promoting the division of labor for successful bioremediation.
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Project description:The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in a deep-sea hydrocarbon plume that caused a shift in the indigenous microbial community composition with unknown ecological consequences. Early in the spill history, a bloom of uncultured, thus uncharacterized, members of the Oceanospirillales was previously detected, but their role in oil disposition was unknown. Here our aim was to determine the functional role of the Oceanospirillales and other active members of the indigenous microbial community using deep sequencing of community DNA and RNA, as well as single-cell genomics. Shotgun metagenomic and metatranscriptomic sequencing revealed that genes for motility, chemotaxis and aliphatic hydrocarbon degradation were significantly enriched and expressed in the hydrocarbon plume samples compared with uncontaminated seawater collected from plume depth. In contrast, although genes coding for degradation of more recalcitrant compounds, such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, total xylenes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, were identified in the metagenomes, they were expressed at low levels, or not at all based on analysis of the metatranscriptomes. Isolation and sequencing of two Oceanospirillales single cells revealed that both cells possessed genes coding for n-alkane and cycloalkane degradation. Specifically, the near-complete pathway for cyclohexane oxidation in the Oceanospirillales single cells was elucidated and supported by both metagenome and metatranscriptome data. The draft genome also included genes for chemotaxis, motility and nutrient acquisition strategies that were also identified in the metagenomes and metatranscriptomes. These data point towards a rapid response of members of the Oceanospirillales to aliphatic hydrocarbons in the deep sea.
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