{"id":30448,"date":"2018-10-10T09:20:28","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T13:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/?p=30448"},"modified":"2022-08-08T10:10:11","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T14:10:11","slug":"oil-biodegradation-slower-in-darker-colder-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/oil-biodegradation-slower-in-darker-colder-waters.htm","title":{"rendered":"Oil Biodegradation Slower in Darker, Colder Waters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In April of 2010, a series of mistakes snowballed into an industrial and environmental disaster as the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig caught fire. The well was supposedly sealed by September of that year, but leaks were reported at the site in 2012. By any measure, it was an unprecedented disaster\u2014but it has also inspired interesting new research from <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.psu.edu\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Penn State<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe Deepwater Horizon disaster occurred at about 1,500 meters depth, and a large portion of the released oil was deposited on the ocean floor,\u201d explains Penn State biogeochemistry doctoral student <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/profile\/Uyen-Nguyen-19\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Uyen Nguyen<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u201cIn that case, oil biodegradation is considered a major factor in what controlled the fate of the spilled oil where other common processes such as evaporation and photo-oxidation are not available. However, this is the first time we saw a major spill at a great depth, so no one really knows how long it would take oil to biodegrade in the deep sea under cold, dark and high-pressure conditions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These conditions slow down metabolism in microbes, so the team thought cold, dark, deeper water conditions might slow down oil degradation; they decided to design an experiment to test the theory.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_30453\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30453\" class=\"size-large wp-image-30453\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_Deepwater-Horizon-600x450.jpg\" alt=\"biodegradation\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_Deepwater-Horizon-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_Deepwater-Horizon-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_Deepwater-Horizon-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_Deepwater-Horizon-940x705.jpg 940w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_Deepwater-Horizon.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-30453\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\">The Deepwater Horizon burning in 2010. (Credit: The US Coast Guard, https:\/\/www.eurekalert.org\/multimedia\/pub\/176054.php?from=400589.)<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Measuring microbial performance<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First, the researchers collected samples of sediment and water.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI collected sediment samples with our team on a research cruise in 2014 using a multicorer, which collects 6 short sediment cores of up to about a meter in length from the seafloor at one time,\u201d details Nguyen. \u201cIn the best cases, the cores come up with the sediment-seawater interface completely intact\u2014sometimes you can see tiny plants or animals still attached. In the worst cases, especially when the sea is rough or we don\u2019t know what texture the seafloor will have, the cores can come up empty. Soft mud is easier to sample than gravelly sediments.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The team chose the sites for several reasons; some were sites the consortium had returned to once or twice a year since the 2010 spill to assess the impacts and monitor the recovery to pre-spill conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe tried to follow potential trajectories of where the oil would go in the DeSoto Canyon and elsewhere in the northern Gulf of Mexico,\u201d Nguyen describes. \u201cFor the biodegradation study, we made sure to select sites that spanned a range of depths, temperatures, and sediment compositions, from sandier to muddier, for example.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Next, the researchers simulated the same deep water conditions that would be present during an oil spill using oil reactors in high-pressure laboratories at Germany&#8217;s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tuhh.de\/alt\/tuhh\/startpage.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hamburg University of Technology<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_30452\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30452\" class=\"size-large wp-image-30452\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_sediment-water-interface-600x899.jpg\" alt=\"biodegradation\" width=\"600\" height=\"899\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_sediment-water-interface-600x899.jpg 600w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_sediment-water-interface-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_sediment-water-interface-768x1150.jpg 768w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_sediment-water-interface-1025x1536.jpg 1025w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_sediment-water-interface-1367x2048.jpg 1367w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_sediment-water-interface-940x1408.jpg 940w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_sediment-water-interface-scaled.jpg 1709w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-30452\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\">The sediment\/water interface. (Credit: Uyen Nguyen, via communication)<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe controlled temperature and pressure in experiments to reflect the in-situ conditions at the sea floor where the sediments were collected from,\u201d states Nguyen. \u201cOur sample sites range from 62 to 1520 meters in water depth, so experimental pressure was from 0.1 to 15 MPa and temperature was from 20 C to 4 C, accordingly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The team placed water and sediment samples with oil in pressure reactors at different temperature and pressure settings for 18 days.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe reactors are made of stainless steel, capped with bronze lids, and designed for high-pressure experiments,\u201d remarks Nguyen. \u201cWe used nitrogen gas to increase and maintain high pressure in the reactors. Inside these reactors, we placed glass vials that contained sediment, oil, and medium for incubation experiments. The reactors are also equipped with sensors to monitor the concentration of oxygen during the experiments.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the 18 day reaction period, the samples went to Penn State for analysis of the degradation over time in the reactors.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe extracted the samples with organic solvents and quantified concentrations of oil compounds using gas-chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS),\u201d comments Nguyen. \u201cWe compared the profile of these compounds between initial and final time points to understand which molecules were degraded and to what extent. Some oil compounds are more appealing food for microbes, easier to eat, like n-alkanes (straight chain hydrocarbons)\u2014and those tend to degrade faster than others that can persist in the environment long-term (like large polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons). We saw the more &#8216;appealing&#8217; or labile compounds disappear in most cases, but most of the less edible compounds stayed intact. So there was a range of compounds to look at to assess stages of oil biodegradation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_30450\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30450\" class=\"size-large wp-image-30450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_Pressure-chambers-600x450.jpg\" alt=\"biodegradation\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_Pressure-chambers-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_Pressure-chambers-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_Pressure-chambers-768x575.jpg 768w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_Pressure-chambers-940x704.jpg 940w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_Pressure-chambers.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-30450\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\">High pressure reactors at the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) simulated deep-sea conditions of biodegradation. Results from the experiments were shipped to Penn State University for chemical analysis. (Credit: C-IMAGE Consortium, https:\/\/www.eurekalert.org\/multimedia\/pub\/176055.php?from=400589.)<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The team found that it would take n-alkanes in sediments about 42 days to degrade at depths of more than 3,280 feet, compared to about 19 days in shallower waters with optimal conditions for microbes. Rates of biodegradation also decreased by 4 percent for each drop of 328 feet.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Lessons from Deepwater Horizon<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although there is still much to learn from a disaster the size of the Deepwater Horizon accident, some takeaways are already clear.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThese aren\u2019t local problems because oil spreads easily, currents carry it into international waters, it\u2019s hard to contain it,\u201d remarks Nguyen. \u201cThe impacts are not just environmental, but economic\u2014shipping is disrupted, fisheries, etc.\u2014there are international ramifications. On the environmental side, fish and marine animals don\u2019t recognize boundaries, either.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_30451\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30451\" class=\"size-large wp-image-30451\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_sectioning-sediment-core-on-ship-600x899.jpg\" alt=\"biodegradation\" width=\"600\" height=\"899\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_sectioning-sediment-core-on-ship-600x899.jpg 600w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_sectioning-sediment-core-on-ship-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_sectioning-sediment-core-on-ship-768x1150.jpg 768w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_sectioning-sediment-core-on-ship-1025x1536.jpg 1025w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_sectioning-sediment-core-on-ship-1367x2048.jpg 1367w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_sectioning-sediment-core-on-ship-940x1408.jpg 940w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_sectioning-sediment-core-on-ship-scaled.jpg 1709w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-30451\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\">A researcher sections a sediment core on the ship. (Credit: Uyen Nguyen, via communication)<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although the Deepwater spill provided a sobering lesson in the dangers of drilling for oil in deep waters, such drilling continues\u2014as does this line of research.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cPeople are developing technology for doing experiments like we did in the lab in situ on the seafloor,\u201d adds Nguyen. \u201cThat\u2019s a great way to minimize any experimental artifacts, exposure of deep-sea microbes to surface condition before experiments, for example, since the growth and metabolism of microbes can be affected if they are introduced to conditions different from their natural habitats.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The team of scientists from this study isn&#8217;t finished with their work, either, and are working to further unravel the mystery of how oil biodegrades in different settings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOn our side, we are looking at distributions of genes for hydrocarbon degradation in global marine metagenomic datasets, to try to understand whether hydrocarbon-degrading microbes are as ubiquitous and active in other regions as they are in the Gulf of Mexico,\u201d states Nguyen. \u201cThe Gulf of Mexico has a long history of oil exposure from natural sources and human activities, but places like the Arctic don\u2019t. If there is a spill there, will biodegradation be as rapid as it has been for the Deepwater Horizon spill?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Top image: The multicorer on the research ship. (Credit: Uyen Nguyen, via communication)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Research into the speed of oil biodegradation under deep water conditions shows that darker, deeper waters slow oil degradation and microbial activity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":30454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8,44,510],"tags":[1126,18,60,1127,109,1123,45,1124,137,1125],"class_list":["post-30448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-articles","category-newsfeed","category-oceans-coasts","category-water-quality","tag-biodegradation","tag-deepwater-horizon","tag-featured","tag-hamburg-university-of-technology","tag-news-ticker","tag-offshore-drilling","tag-oil","tag-penn-state","tag-sediment","tag-uyen-nguyen"],"remote_post_permalink":false,"remote_post_featured_image":false,"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Oil Biodegradation Slower in Darker, Colder Waters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Research into the speed of oil biodegradation under deep water conditions shows that darker, deeper waters slow oil degradation and microbial activity.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/oil-biodegradation-slower-in-darker-colder-waters.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oil Biodegradation Slower in Darker, Colder Waters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Research into the speed of oil biodegradation under deep water conditions shows that darker, deeper waters slow oil degradation and microbial activity.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/oil-biodegradation-slower-in-darker-colder-waters.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Environmental Monitor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-10-10T13:20:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-08T14:10:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Oil_biodegradation_multicorer_sunset.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"4320\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"3240\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Karla Lant\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Karla Lant\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/oil-biodegradation-slower-in-darker-colder-waters.htm#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/oil-biodegradation-slower-in-darker-colder-waters.htm\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Karla Lant\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/51170f7bfa3a05b94cea6f517ce4e79b\"},\"headline\":\"Oil Biodegradation Slower in Darker, Colder Waters\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-10-10T13:20:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-08T14:10:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/oil-biodegradation-slower-in-darker-colder-waters.htm\"},\"wordCount\":1142,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/oil-biodegradation-slower-in-darker-colder-waters.htm#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.fondriest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/10\\\/Oil_biodegradation_multicorer_sunset-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"biodegradation\",\"Deepwater Horizon\",\"featured\",\"Hamburg University of Technology\",\"news ticker\",\"offshore drilling\",\"oil\",\"Penn State\",\"sediment\",\"Uyen Nguyen\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Featured Articles\",\"Newsfeed\",\"Oceans &amp; 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