Pulsed blooms and persistent oil-degrading bacterial populations in the water column during and after the Deepwater Horizon blowout
Advanced Search
Select up to three search categories and corresponding keywords using the fields to the right. Refer to the Help section for more detailed instructions.

Search our Collections & Repository

For very narrow results

When looking for a specific result

Best used for discovery & interchangable words

Recommended to be used in conjunction with other fields

Dates

to

Document Data
Library
People
Clear All
Clear All

For additional assistance using the Custom Query please check out our Help Page

i

Pulsed blooms and persistent oil-degrading bacterial populations in the water column during and after the Deepwater Horizon blowout

Filetype[PDF-887.26 KB]



Details:

  • Journal Title:
    Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography
  • Personal Author:
  • NOAA Program & Office:
  • Description:
    One of the defining features of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was the rapid formation and persistence of a hydrocarbon plume in deep water. Here we use 16S rRNA gene clone libraries and pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene fragments to outline the temporal dynamics of the bacterial community in the water column near the Macondo wellhead. Our timeline starts with the pre-spill (March 2010) status of the water column bacterial community, continues through the bacterial enrichments dominating the hydrocarbon plume after the blowout (DWH Oceanospirillales, Cycloclasticus, Colwellia in late May 2010), and leads towards post-spill bacterial communities with molecular signatures related to degradation of phytoplankton pulses (September and October 2010; July 2011) in the water column near the Macondo wellhead. We document a dramatic transition as the complex bacterial community before the oil spill was temporarily overwhelmed by a few specialized bacterial groups responding to the massive influx of hydrocarbons in May 2010. In September and October 2010, this bacterial bloom had been replaced by a diversified bacterial community which resembled its predecessor prior to the spill. Notably, the post-plume 16S rRNA gene clone libraries and pyrosequencing datasets illustrated the continued presence of oil-degrading bacteria in the water column near the Macondo wellhead which we posit to represent an inherent signature of hydrocarbon catabolic potential to the Gulf of Mexico. The pyroseqencing results detected and tracked minority bacterial populations that were not visible in the conventional 16S rRNA gene clone libraries and allowed us to identify natural reservoirs of the Deepwater Horizon Oceanospirillales within and outside of the Gulf of Mexico.
  • Keywords:
  • Source:
    Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography, 129, 282-291
  • DOI:
  • ISSN:
    0967-0645
  • Format:
  • Publisher:
  • Document Type:
  • Rights Information:
    Accepted Manuscript
  • Compliance:
    Library
  • Main Document Checksum:
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:

Supporting Files

  • No Additional Files
More +

You May Also Like

Checkout today's featured content at repository.library.noaa.gov

Version 3.27.1