Biodegradation of Dispersed Oil in Arctic Seawater at -1°C
As offshore oil and gas exploration expands in the Arctic, it is important to expand the scientific understanding of arctic ecology and environmental impact to mitigate operational risks. Understanding the fate of oil in arctic seawater is a key factor for consideration. Here we report the chemical...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:3885550 2023-05-15T13:09:07+02:00 Biodegradation of Dispersed Oil in Arctic Seawater at -1°C McFarlin, Kelly M. Prince, Roger C. Perkins, Robert Leigh, Mary Beth 2014-01-08 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3885550 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0084297 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3885550 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0084297 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2014 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0084297 2014-01-12T01:53:18Z As offshore oil and gas exploration expands in the Arctic, it is important to expand the scientific understanding of arctic ecology and environmental impact to mitigate operational risks. Understanding the fate of oil in arctic seawater is a key factor for consideration. Here we report the chemical loss due to the biodegradation of Alaska North Slope (ANS) crude oil that would occur in the water column following the successful dispersion of a surface oil slick. Primary biodegradation and mineralization were measured in mesocosms containing Arctic seawater collected from the Chukchi Sea, Alaska, incubated at −1°C. Indigenous microorganisms degraded both fresh and weathered oil, in both the presence and absence of Corexit 9500, with oil losses ranging from 46−61% and up to 11% mineralization over 60 days. When tested alone, 14% of 50 ppm Corexit 9500 was mineralized within 60 days. Our study reveals that microorganisms indigenous to Arctic seawater are capable of performing extensive biodegradation of chemically and physically dispersed oil at an environmentally relevant temperature (−1°C) without any additional nutrients. Text Alaska North Slope Arctic Chukchi Chukchi Sea north slope Alaska PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Chukchi Sea PLoS ONE 9 1 e84297 |
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Research Article McFarlin, Kelly M. Prince, Roger C. Perkins, Robert Leigh, Mary Beth Biodegradation of Dispersed Oil in Arctic Seawater at -1°C |
topic_facet |
Research Article |
description |
As offshore oil and gas exploration expands in the Arctic, it is important to expand the scientific understanding of arctic ecology and environmental impact to mitigate operational risks. Understanding the fate of oil in arctic seawater is a key factor for consideration. Here we report the chemical loss due to the biodegradation of Alaska North Slope (ANS) crude oil that would occur in the water column following the successful dispersion of a surface oil slick. Primary biodegradation and mineralization were measured in mesocosms containing Arctic seawater collected from the Chukchi Sea, Alaska, incubated at −1°C. Indigenous microorganisms degraded both fresh and weathered oil, in both the presence and absence of Corexit 9500, with oil losses ranging from 46−61% and up to 11% mineralization over 60 days. When tested alone, 14% of 50 ppm Corexit 9500 was mineralized within 60 days. Our study reveals that microorganisms indigenous to Arctic seawater are capable of performing extensive biodegradation of chemically and physically dispersed oil at an environmentally relevant temperature (−1°C) without any additional nutrients. |
format |
Text |
author |
McFarlin, Kelly M. Prince, Roger C. Perkins, Robert Leigh, Mary Beth |
author_facet |
McFarlin, Kelly M. Prince, Roger C. Perkins, Robert Leigh, Mary Beth |
author_sort |
McFarlin, Kelly M. |
title |
Biodegradation of Dispersed Oil in Arctic Seawater at -1°C |
title_short |
Biodegradation of Dispersed Oil in Arctic Seawater at -1°C |
title_full |
Biodegradation of Dispersed Oil in Arctic Seawater at -1°C |
title_fullStr |
Biodegradation of Dispersed Oil in Arctic Seawater at -1°C |
title_full_unstemmed |
Biodegradation of Dispersed Oil in Arctic Seawater at -1°C |
title_sort |
biodegradation of dispersed oil in arctic seawater at -1°c |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3885550 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0084297 |
geographic |
Arctic Chukchi Sea |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Chukchi Sea |
genre |
Alaska North Slope Arctic Chukchi Chukchi Sea north slope Alaska |
genre_facet |
Alaska North Slope Arctic Chukchi Chukchi Sea north slope Alaska |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3885550 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0084297 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0084297 |
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PLoS ONE |
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9 |
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1 |
container_start_page |
e84297 |
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1766163009125744640 |