scholarly journals Microbial Community Dynamics during Biodegradation of Crude Oil and Its Response to Biostimulation in Svalbard Seawater at Low Temperature

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 2425
Author(s):  
Hiie Nõlvak ◽  
Nga Phuong Dang ◽  
Marika Truu ◽  
Angela Peeb ◽  
Kertu Tiirik ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Microbial Community ◽  
Crude Oil ◽  
Microbial Community Structure ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Hydrocarbon Degradation ◽  
Taxonomic Assignment ◽  
Metabolic Potential ◽  
Microbial Community Dynamics

The development of oil exploration activities and an increase in shipping in Arctic areas have increased the risk of oil spills in this cold marine environment. The objective of this experimental study was to assess the effect of biostimulation on microbial community abundance, structure, dynamics, and metabolic potential for oil hydrocarbon degradation in oil-contaminated Arctic seawater. The combination of amplicon-based and shotgun sequencing, together with the integration of genome-resolved metagenomics and omics data, was applied to assess microbial community structure and metabolic properties in naphthenic crude oil-amended microcosms. The comparison of estimates for oil-degrading microbial taxa obtained with different sequencing and taxonomic assignment methods showed substantial discrepancies between applied methods. Consequently, the data acquired with different methods was integrated for the analysis of microbial community structure, and amended with quantitative PCR, producing a more objective description of microbial community dynamics and evaluation of the effect of biostimulation on particular microbial taxa. Implementing biostimulation of the seawater microbial community with the addition of nutrients resulted in substantially elevated prokaryotic community abundance (103-fold), a distinctly different bacterial community structure from that in the initial seawater, 1.3-fold elevation in the normalized abundance of hydrocarbon degradation genes, and 12% enhancement of crude oil biodegradation. The bacterial communities in biostimulated microcosms after four months of incubation were dominated by Gammaproteobacterial genera Pseudomonas, Marinomonas, and Oleispira, which were succeeded by Cycloclasticus and Paraperlucidibaca after eight months of incubation. The majority of 195 compiled good-quality metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) exhibited diverse hydrocarbon degradation gene profiles. The results reveal that biostimulation with nutrients promotes naphthenic oil degradation in Arctic seawater, but this strategy alone might not be sufficient to effectively achieve bioremediation goals within a reasonable timeframe.

Linking Microbial Community Dynamics in BIOX® Leaching Tanks to Process Conditions: Integrating Lab and Commercial Experience

2017 ◽  
Vol 262 ◽  
pp. 38-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariette Smart ◽  
Robert J. Huddy ◽  
Catherine J. Edward ◽  
Charl Fourie ◽  
Trust Shumba ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Community Structure ◽  
Microbial Community ◽  
Research University ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Process Conditions ◽  
Significant Shift ◽  
Engineering Research ◽  
Microbial Community Dynamics

In the commercial BIOX® process, an acidophilic mixed bacterial and archaeal community dominated by iron and sulphur oxidising microorganisms is used to facilitate the recovery of precious metals from refractory gold-bearing sulphidic mineral concentrates. Characterisation of the microbial communities associated with commercial BIOX® reactors from four continents revealed a significant shift in the microbial community structure compared to that of the seed culture, maintained at SGS (South Africa). This has motivated more detailed study of the microbial community dynamics in the process. Microbial speciation of a subset of the BIOX® reactors at Fairview mines (Barberton, South Africa) and two laboratory maintained reactors housed at Centre for Bioprocess Engineering Research, University of Cape Town, has been performed tri-annually for three years by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The laboratory BIOX® culture maintained on Fairview concentrate was dominated by the desired iron oxidiser, Leptospirillum ferriphilum, and sulphur oxidiser, Acidithiobacillus caldus, when operated under standard BIOX® conditions. Shifts in the microbial community as a result of altered operating conditions were transient and did not result in a loss of the microbial diversity of the BIOX® culture. The community structure of the Fairview mines BIOX® reactor tanks showed archaeal dominance of these communities by organisms such as the iron oxidiser Ferroplasma acidiphilum and a Thermoplasma sp. for the period monitored. Shifts in the microbial community were observed across the monitoring period and mapped to changes in performance of the commercial process plant. Understanding the effect of changes in the plant operating conditions on the BIOX® community structure may assist in providing conditions that support the desired microbial consortium for optimal biooxidation to maximize gold recovery.

scholarly journals Microbial diversity of the Arabian Sea in the Oxygen minimum zones by metagenomics approach

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mandar S. Paingankar ◽  
Kedar Ahire ◽  
Pawan Mishra ◽  
Shriram Rajpathak ◽  
Deepti D. Deobagkar
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Microbial Community ◽  
Arabian Sea ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Oxygen Depletion ◽  
Oxygen Minimum Zones ◽  
Microbial Community Dynamics ◽  
Nitrate Reducers ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Oxygen Minimum

ABSTRACTLarge oxygen depleted areas known as oxygen minimum zones (OMZ) have been observed in the Arabian Sea and recent reports indicate that these areas are expanding at an alarming rate. In marine waters, oxygen depletion may also be related to global warming and the temperature rise, acidification and deoxygenation can lead to major consequences wherein the plants, fish and other biota will struggle to survive in the ecosystem.The current study has identified the microbial community structure using NGS based metagenomics analysis in the water samples collected at different depth from the oxygen depleted and non-OMZ areas of Arabian Sea. Environmental variables such as depth, site of collection and oxygen concentration appeared to influence the species richness and evenness among microbial communities in these locations. Our observations clearly indicate that population dynamics of microbes consisting of nitrate reducers accompanied by sulphate reducers and sulphur oxidizers participate in the interconnected geochemical cycles of the OMZ areas. In addition to providing baseline data related to the diversity and microbial community dynamics in oxygen-depleted water in the OMZ; such analysis can provide insight into processes regulating productivity and ecological community structure of the ocean.

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