Dataset Information

Effects of a Simulated Acute Oil Spillage on Bacterial Communities from Arctic and Antarctic Marine Sediments.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:The bacterial community responses to oil spill events are key elements to predict the fate of hydrocarbon pollution in receiving aquatic environments. In polar systems, cold temperatures and low irradiance levels can limit the effectiveness of contamination removal processes. In this study, the effects of a simulated acute oil spillage on bacterial communities from polar sediments were investigated, by assessing the role of hydrocarbon mixture, incubation time and source bacterial community in selecting oil-degrading bacterial phylotypes. METHODS:The bacterial hydrocarbon degradation was evaluated by gas chromatography. Flow cytometric and fingerprinting profiles were used to assess the bacterial community dynamics over the experimental incubation time. RESULTS:Direct responses to the simulated oil spill event were found from both Arctic and Antarctic settings, with recurrent bacterial community traits and diversity profiles, especially in crude oil enrichment. Along with the dominance of Pseudomonas spp., members of the well-known hydrocarbon degraders Granulosicoccus spp. and Cycloclasticus spp. were retrieved from both sediments. CONCLUSIONS:Our findings indicated that polar bacterial populations are able to respond to the detrimental effects of simulated hydrocarbon pollution, by developing into a more specialized active oil degrading community.

SUBMITTER: Rizzo C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6956123 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Effects of a Simulated Acute Oil Spillage on Bacterial Communities from Arctic and Antarctic Marine Sediments.

Rizzo Carmen C Malavenda Roberta R Gerçe Berna B Papale Maria M Syldatk Christoph C Hausmann Rudolf R Bruni Vivia V Michaud Luigi L Lo Giudice Angelina A Amalfitano Stefano S

Microorganisms 20191130 12

<h4>Background</h4>The bacterial community responses to oil spill events are key elements to predict the fate of hydrocarbon pollution in receiving aquatic environments. In polar systems, cold temperatures and low irradiance levels can limit the effectiveness of contamination removal processes. In this study, the effects of a simulated acute oil spillage on bacterial communities from polar sediments were investigated, by assessing the role of hydrocarbon mixture, incubation time and source bacte ...[more]

PMID: 31801240

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Project description:Chemoautotrophy has been little studied in typical coastal marine sediments, but may be an important component of carbon recycling as intense anaerobic mineralization processes in these sediments lead to accumulation of high amounts of reduced compounds, such as sulfides and ammonium. We studied chemoautotrophy by measuring dark-fixation of 13C-bicarbonate into phospholipid derived fatty acid (PLFA) biomarkers at two coastal sediment sites with contrasting sulfur chemistry in the Eastern Scheldt estuary, The Netherlands. At one site where free sulfide accumulated in the pore water right to the top of the sediment, PLFA labeling was restricted to compounds typically found in sulfur and ammonium oxidizing bacteria. At the other site, with no detectable free sulfide in the pore water, a very different PLFA labeling pattern was found with high amounts of label in branched i- and a-PLFA besides the typical compounds for sulfur and ammonium oxidizing bacteria. This suggests that other types of chemoautotrophic bacteria were also active, most likely Deltaproteobacteria related to sulfate reducers. Maximum rates of chemoautotrophy were detected in first 1 to 2 centimeters of both sediments and chemosynthetic biomass production was high ranging from 3 to 36 mmol C m(-2) d(-1). Average dark carbon fixation to sediment oxygen uptake ratios were 0.22±0.07 mol C (mol O2)(-1), which is in the range of the maximum growth yields reported for sulfur oxidizing bacteria indicating highly efficient growth. Chemoautotrophic biomass production was similar to carbon mineralization rates in the top of the free sulfide site, suggesting that chemoautotrophic bacteria could play a crucial role in the microbial food web and labeling in eukaryotic poly-unsaturated PLFA was indeed detectable. Our study shows that dark carbon fixation by chemoautotrophic bacteria is a major process in the carbon cycle of coastal sediments, and should therefore receive more attention in future studies on sediment biogeochemistry and microbial ecology.

Dataset Information

Effects of a Simulated Acute Oil Spillage on Bacterial Communities from Arctic and Antarctic Marine Sediments.

Publications

Effects of a Simulated Acute Oil Spillage on Bacterial Communities from Arctic and Antarctic Marine Sediments.

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