Gurpreet S Kharey, V. Palace, L. Whyte, Charles W. Greer
{"title":"Influence of heavy Canadian crude oil on pristine freshwater boreal lake ecosystems in an experimental oil spill.","authors":"Gurpreet S Kharey, V. Palace, L. Whyte, Charles W. Greer","doi":"10.1093/femsec/fiae054","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The overall impact of a crude oil spill into a pristine freshwater environment in Canada is largely unknown. To evaluate the impact on the native microbial community, a large-scale in situ model experimental spill was conducted to assess the potential role of the natural community to attenuate hydrocarbons. A small volume of conventional heavy crude oil (CHV) was introduced within contained mesocosm enclosures deployed on the shoreline of a freshwater lake. The oil was left to interact with the shoreline for 72 h and then free-floating oil was recovered using common oil spill response methods (i.e. freshwater flushing and capture on oleophilic absorptive media). Residual PAH concentrations returned to near pre-oiling concentrations within 2 months, while the microbial community composition across the water, soil, and sediment matrices of the enclosed oligotrophic freshwater ecosystems did not shift significantly over this period. Metagenomic analysis revealed key polycyclic aromatic and alkane degradation mechanisms also did not change in their relative abundance over the monitoring period. These trends suggest that for small spills (<2 L of oil per 15 m2 of surface freshwater), physical oil recovery reduces PAH concentrations to levels tolerated by the native microbial community. Additionally, the native microbial community present in the monitored pristine freshwater ecosystem possesses the appropriate hydrocarbon degradation mechanisms without prior challenge by hydrocarbon substrates. This study corroborated trends found previously (Kharey et al. 2024) toward freshwater hydrocarbon degradation in an environmentally relevant scale and conditions on the tolerance of residual hydrocarbons in situ.","PeriodicalId":12312,"journal":{"name":"FEMS microbiology ecology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"FEMS microbiology ecology","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/femsec/fiae054","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"MICROBIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The overall impact of a crude oil spill into a pristine freshwater environment in Canada is largely unknown. To evaluate the impact on the native microbial community, a large-scale in situ model experimental spill was conducted to assess the potential role of the natural community to attenuate hydrocarbons. A small volume of conventional heavy crude oil (CHV) was introduced within contained mesocosm enclosures deployed on the shoreline of a freshwater lake. The oil was left to interact with the shoreline for 72 h and then free-floating oil was recovered using common oil spill response methods (i.e. freshwater flushing and capture on oleophilic absorptive media). Residual PAH concentrations returned to near pre-oiling concentrations within 2 months, while the microbial community composition across the water, soil, and sediment matrices of the enclosed oligotrophic freshwater ecosystems did not shift significantly over this period. Metagenomic analysis revealed key polycyclic aromatic and alkane degradation mechanisms also did not change in their relative abundance over the monitoring period. These trends suggest that for small spills (<2 L of oil per 15 m2 of surface freshwater), physical oil recovery reduces PAH concentrations to levels tolerated by the native microbial community. Additionally, the native microbial community present in the monitored pristine freshwater ecosystem possesses the appropriate hydrocarbon degradation mechanisms without prior challenge by hydrocarbon substrates. This study corroborated trends found previously (Kharey et al. 2024) toward freshwater hydrocarbon degradation in an environmentally relevant scale and conditions on the tolerance of residual hydrocarbons in situ.
期刊介绍:
FEMS Microbiology Ecology aims to ensure efficient publication of high-quality papers that are original and provide a significant contribution to the understanding of microbial ecology. The journal contains Research Articles and MiniReviews on fundamental aspects of the ecology of microorganisms in natural soil, aquatic and atmospheric habitats, including extreme environments, and in artificial or managed environments. Research papers on pure cultures and in the areas of plant pathology and medical, food or veterinary microbiology will be published where they provide valuable generic information on microbial ecology. Papers can deal with culturable and non-culturable forms of any type of microorganism: bacteria, archaea, filamentous fungi, yeasts, protozoa, cyanobacteria, algae or viruses. In addition, the journal will publish Perspectives, Current Opinion and Controversy Articles, Commentaries and Letters to the Editor on topical issues in microbial ecology.
- Application of ecological theory to microbial ecology
- Interactions and signalling between microorganisms and with plants and animals
- Interactions between microorganisms and their physicochemical enviornment
- Microbial aspects of biogeochemical cycles and processes
- Microbial community ecology
- Phylogenetic and functional diversity of microbial communities
- Evolutionary biology of microorganisms