Oil-Eating Microbes Aided Gulf Recovery After BP Spill (VIDEO)

By David Biello
(Click here for the original article.)

Microbes kept the oil and gas spewing from the Macondo well from becoming even more of a disaster, preventing the Deepwater Horizon blowout from deeply befouling the Gulf coast. But these hydrocarbon-chompers got an assist from the Gulf of Mexico -- the prevailing tides and currents helped keep hydrocarbon-eating microbes on the job, according to the results of a new model published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on January 9.

Simply put, the study sought to answer the question: how did five families of bacteria keep 4.1 million barrels of oil (and billions of cubic feet of natural gas) from becoming a bigger disaster? And, additionally, why didn’t they suck all the oxygen out of the water while they were at it?

The answer appears to be ocean currents, according to a computer model:

Water mixing ensured that the 200 billion grams of hydrocarbons injected into the Gulf of Mexico became, ultimately, some 100 sextillion microbial cells of propane- and ethane-consuming Colwellia, aromatic-eating Cycloclasticus, methane-munching Methylococcaceaa and alkane-eating Oceanospirillales. They also ensured that hydrocarbons were introduced into waters already hosting microbe blooms spurred by earlier oil and gas releases. The team of researchers suggest that this "autoinoculation" -- early blooms drifting back to the spill site and chowing down anew -- allowed the microbes to work fast over the course of the months-long disaster as well as keeping oxygen depletion from growing too severe in any one place.

The model isn't perfect -- it failed to precisely match observations of where the oil (and microbial) plume traveled -- but it does explain why oil and gas consumption can proceed so fast, even when it's microbes (and not humans) doing the hydrocarbon consuming.

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[Lasse Von Gakhausen]

10:14 AM on 01/12/2012

Now if the white house actually wanted they could have avoided using those dispersants and listened to the pros of bioversal.hc
then a lot of bad things and future expenses could have been avoided

[Joe Yerkes]

08:46 AM on 01/12/2012

i wonder how much this one cost BP

[The last sane American]

08:07 AM on 01/11/2012

Thank you for the PSA on behalf of Mother Nature.

[sunsetter]

07:22 AM on 01/11/2012

Environmentalists aren't gonna like this story.

[Hal May]

12:37 AM on 01/11/2012

I'm such a dork, but just goes to show how important micro organisms are in the world. How can they not be interesting when they occupy 98% of the biomass of the Earth and form the basis for the rest of life on Earth.? What an amazing planet we live on.

[WESmith]

11:12 PM on 01/10/2012

Too bad these microbes can't eat sunscreen. Our sunscreen killed all of the coral reefs in the GOM. We now have to use old oil platforms to simulate the reef.

[The last sane American]

07:52 AM on 01/11/2012

I think that a little more than a statement is needed here.

I am on the edge of my seat.

[stickmanmob]

06:41 PM on 01/10/2012

The science behind these things is amazing. However, I always feel guilty when an non-native lifeforms are placed in an ecosystem.

[sentimentiques]

08:59 PM on 01/10/2012

I don't understand your guilt. This is a scientific solution to a gigantic mess.

[stickmanmob]

05:10 PM on 01/11/2012

Yes, while it is great, I feel guilty for the reason that we are releasing a non-native species into the ecosystem. We have done this in the past and it had unforeseen consequences.

[altohone]

05:52 PM on 01/10/2012

Some mention of the disastrous ongoing contamination from the spill would seem in order in a piece like this.
Oil lingers uneaten by these bacteria and continues to kill sea life, wipe out marsh grasses and harm humans.

[The last sane American]

07:57 AM on 01/11/2012

"Some mention of the" facts supporting that statement "would seem in order in a "your reply.

Contamination is ongoing and locally disastrous. But as the story reports, large areas of the Gulf seem to be in nearly complete remediation, thanks to Mother Nature.

[snowballinhell]

05:15 AM on 02/15/2012

Large areas of the Gulf were nearly complete before the BP DeepwaterHorizon oil well blowout. Now how much of the Gulf is 'in remediation'?