The Deepwater Horizon spill was different from previous oil spills due to its depth and the large amount of natural gas emitted along with the oil. Most of this gas and some components of the oil remained dissolved or suspended in the deep ocean. Despite the low temperatures at these depths, bacteria responded rapidly to hydrocarbon inputs and microbial community composition changed dramatically, becoming dominated by just a few types of hydrocarbon degraders. Microbial respiration was initially dominated by ethane and propane oxidation. DNA stable isotope probing experiments showed that the major ethane and propane oxidizers were bacteria from the genus Colwellia, which accounted for ~60% of the microbial community in deep water plume samples. These bacteria were also capable of consuming benzene and other petroleum compounds, suggesting that natural gas played a significant role in increasing populations of hydrocarbon degrading bacteria.

Hydrocarbon degradation in deep water oil and gas plumes from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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