Legacy and Dispersant Influence Microbial Community Dynamics in Cold Seawater Contaminated by Crude Oil Water Accommodated Fractions

36 Pages Posted: 16 Mar 2022

See all articles by Tamer Hafez

Tamer Hafez

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Maren Ortiz-Zarragoitia

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Christine Cagnon

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Cristiana Cravo-Laureau

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Robert Duran

China University of Geosciences (CUG) - School of Water Resources and Environment and Research Center of Environmental Science and Engineering

Abstract

We investigated the microbial community dynamics in cold water contaminated by crude oil water accommodated fractions (WAF) prepared with or without the presence of dispersant (Finasol OSR 52). The WAFs, prepared with Naphthenic North Atlantic (NNA) crude oil, were used to contaminate seawater from Norwegian cold sites, one oil-contaminated and the other pristine. The WAF-contaminated seawaters were maintained in microcosms at 4°C for 21 days. The content of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and microbial compositions (16S rRNA gene sequencing) were determined at days 0, 7, 14 and 21. In addition, the 96 hours toxicity assay with adult Acartia tonsa revealed WAFs toxicity at days 0 and 21. The presence of dispersant in WAF increased the toxicity against Acartia tonsa but facilitated the reduction of the toxicity at day 21 without enhancing the PAH removal. The highest PAH removal was observed with the water from the oil-contaminated site revealing the legacy effect, the presence of microorganisms adapted to PAH. The PAH removal was accompanied by microbial community changes during the incubation, revealing: i) the plasticity of the microbial community to adapt to the presence of PAH and dispersant, ii) the presence of specific bacterial taxa probably involved in PAH degradation, and iii) the effects of dispersant in shaping the microbial communities dynamics through the rapid stimulation of certain potentially dispersant degrading taxa, such as Fusibacter . Thus, our results provide valuable insights on the role of microbial community in determining the fate of water solubilized hydrocarbon in cold environment questioning the role of dispersant used for fighting oil spill.

Keywords: Water Accommodated Fractions, dispersant, Cold water, Microbial communities, Bioremediation, Crude oil

Suggested Citation

Hafez, Tamer and Ortiz-Zarragoitia, Maren and Cagnon, Christine and Cravo-Laureau, Cristiana and Duran, Robert, Legacy and Dispersant Influence Microbial Community Dynamics in Cold Seawater Contaminated by Crude Oil Water Accommodated Fractions. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4042149 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4042149

Tamer Hafez

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Maren Ortiz-Zarragoitia

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Christine Cagnon

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Cristiana Cravo-Laureau

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Robert Duran (Contact Author)

China University of Geosciences (CUG) - School of Water Resources and Environment and Research Center of Environmental Science and Engineering ( email )

29 Xueyuan Road
Beijing, 100083
China

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