Bacteria Ate Mostly Gas, Not Oil In BP Spill

Los Angeles Times:

Bacteria that attacked the plumes of oil and gas from the Deepwater Horizon gusher in the Gulf of Mexico mainly digested natural gas spewing from the wellhead -- propane, ethane and butane -- rather than oil, according to a study published in the journal Science.

Read the whole story: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[truth67]

11:29 AM on 10/07/2010

ok, so if the goverment's estimate of the leaking oil was off by 2 million barreals a day, do you question their judgement when saying the seafood is safe?

[kingbuzz]

12:35 PM on 09/17/2010

but most of the oil is gone.

[phantomcat]

07:52 AM on 09/17/2010

Oil and gas are toxic. This is news? The people of the gulf coast wanted offshore drilling and some still want it to continue. It is still about money and jobs. Many would prefer to work on a rig than on a fishing boat or resturant. The hotel/resort in the tourist trade suffers unless they lie about the safty of the water. This has been a problem all over the world. When we begin to respect our natural resourses we will protect them so far we don't care.

[knerd]

06:24 AM on 09/17/2010

God, this just makes me so sick. When are we all going to finally get on the same page and realize that consiousness does not reside inside our skull? Every guru, savior, mystic, artist, prophet and poet has told us so for millenia.

We need to study what our own race of people has taught us. There's a final exam right on our desks this minute.

[naughtYmike]

04:54 AM on 09/17/2010

"Why Oil Won't Go Away"

It won't go away because it doesn't evaporate, baxteria doesn't eat it, and they did not and will not clean it up.

[RitaS]

03:34 AM on 09/17/2010

Hmm.. based on the Exon spill more than 2 decades ago for which Alaska is STILL recovering from, is any SANE American really surprised that 'problems' are cropping up w/ the BP disaster???

Hey, the Gulf & all the states surrounding it w/ be effected, big & small, for the next few decades. This effect includes the 'oil' as well as those 'suspect chemicals' dropped by the millions of gallons into the Gulf....

[TedEjr]

07:46 AM on 09/17/2010

Thank you!!!

I have been posting for MONTHS that this will be a GENERATIONAL problem, and people have been pooh poohing me. Finally, someone who 'gets' it'.

F&F

[WillemPieter Bloed]

02:36 AM on 09/17/2010

I'll have another job for them when i have my onion soup

[WillemPieter Bloed]

02:34 AM on 09/17/2010

They are fired

[imbible]

02:04 AM on 09/17/2010

You don't eat any more gas until you clean up all your oil!

[gevan]

01:48 AM on 09/17/2010

We will have to invite a better quality of bacteria to our next lunch fest.

[SaraSH]

12:45 AM on 09/17/2010

As Bill Maher said it brilliantly, The oil has disappeared into these organisms called " AMERICANS"

[RobHunt]

12:30 AM on 09/17/2010

If you want a good laugh, go back about six weeks ago and read some of the comments.

"This is the greatest ecological disaster in history!"

"The oil will cover every beach on the East coast of Florida."

"The oil will get into the Gulf Stream and destroy life in the arctic ocean."

And MY personal favorite:

"Did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?"

[research]

12:47 AM on 09/17/2010

And now we all pretend it isn't going to be worse than Alaska....

how gull able are you?

[RobHunt]

01:12 AM on 09/17/2010

What are you even TALKING about? I can't tell if you're suggesting the Gulf spill was worse than the spill in Alaska or NOT as bad. I'll say this about BOTH spills. NEITHER was so horrible. NEITHER approach the worst that can befall man. You people make Chicken Little look relaxed. Get over it.

[snowballinhell]

01:40 AM on 09/17/2010

To RobHunt

Manifest Destiny ended century before last. That is when the planet could heal from uncontrolled environmental destruction like the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Now everywhere is affected and places are being lost completely forever; the mountaintop rain forests of Ecuador, for example - see E.O. Wilson's the Diversity Of Life - page 245.

The oceans are now, thanks to BP being rapidly killed. Acidification alone kills micro organisms which cannot adapt to a more acidic ocean. Do a test: take a fish bone, weigh it, place it under some oil contaminated Gulf oil and watch it for a month or so. Do some slow mo photos and observe the difference. See if the bone doesn't deform. I haven't tried it yet, but it should show results. And keep us all off the computer.

[gevan]

01:49 AM on 09/17/2010

The great gulf experiment is still in the process of being played out. Keep tuned in.

[LeftLeanWing]

12:24 AM on 09/17/2010

The very brief Science Article:

Published Online September 16, 2010
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1196830

Propane Respiration Jump-Starts Microbial Response to a Deep Oil Spill. David L. Valentine, 1 ,*   John D. Kessler, 2   Molly C. Redmond, 1   Stephanie D. Mendes, 1   Monica B. Heintz, 1 Christopher Farwell, 1   Lei Hu, 2   Franklin S. Kinnaman, 1   Shari Yvon-Lewis, 2   Mengran Du, 2   Eric W. Chan, 2 Fenix Garcia Tigreros, 2   Christie J. Villanueva 1

The Deepwater Horizon event resulted in suspension of oil in  the Gulf of Mexico water column because the leakage occurred  at great depth. The distribution and fate of other abundant  hydrocarbon constituents, such as natural gases, are also important  in determining the impact of the leakage, but are not yet well  understood. 

From 11 to 21 June 2010, we investigated dissolved  hydrocarbon gases at depth using chemical and isotopic surveys  and on-site biodegradation studies. Propane and ethane were  the primary drivers of microbial respiration, accounting for  up to 70% of the observed oxygen depletion in fresh plumes.  Propane and ethane trapped in the deep water may therefore promote  rapid hydrocarbon respiration by low-diversity bacterial blooms,  priming bacterial populations for degradation of other hydrocarbons  in the aging plume.

[Just4theHalibut]

12:00 AM on 09/17/2010

OK, I am not sure which article is refered to, but assume it is the one pubished on-line by Science, today. Here is the abstract. I am no expert but I don't think the headline is accurate.
The abstract says (as far as I can tell) that initial bacterial populations ate gas, paving the way for more diverse bacterial populations to eat oil.
"The Deepwater Horizon event resulted in suspension of oil in the Gulf of Mexico water column because the leakage occurred at great depth. The distribution and fate of other abundant hydrocarbon constituents, such as natural gases, are also important in determining the impact of the leakage, but are not yet well understood. From 11 to 21 June 2010, we investigated dissolved hydrocarbon gases at depth using chemical and isotopic surveys and on-site biodegradation studies. Propane and ethane were the primary drivers of microbial respiration, accounting for up to 70% of the observed oxygen depletion in fresh plumes. Propane and ethane trapped in the deep water may therefore promote rapid hydrocarbon respiration by low-diversity bacterial blooms, priming bacterial populations for degradation of other hydrocarbons in the aging plume."

[Cool Bam]

12:14 AM on 09/17/2010

You got that exactly right. I read that article earlier. Nobody is interested in the facts, just what emotion their "journalism" can gin up.

[Just4theHalibut]

12:22 AM on 09/17/2010

I am afraid you are right. Disappointing to find in a supposedly progressive blog.
Not much different from the tea-partiers. Sigh.

[LeftLeanWing]

05:53 AM on 09/17/2010

Fanned #2

[Blindmeis]

12:55 AM on 09/17/2010

Propane and Ethane are gases. They found that the primary drivers of respiration were those bacteria which fed on Propane and Ethane.

Ethane and Propane are gases, unlike petroleum Hydrocarbons
Respiration is the process by which the bacteria "attack" the Hydrocarbons.

It seems fairly clear that this study found that the "primary driver" of respiration were those bacteria which fed on gases. I don't see the problem with the headline.

[LeftLeanWing]

02:57 AM on 09/17/2010

The problem is that the article says nothing about NOT EATING THE OIL......

It only says the 70% of the respiration is due to the gases.

You are incorrect in stating the Propane and Ethane are not Hydrocarbons.

In a nutshell the article says the bacteria eats the gases more readily that the heavier liquid hydrocarbons....  which makes sense.

[mojo1514]

11:40 PM on 09/16/2010

dem/repub politician critters are evil and should be overthrown.

Unfortunately, the dem/repub politicians for at least the last hundred years, choose their re-elections over doing what is in the best interest of the country.