Correlation of Microbial Population Numbers and Oil Concentrations in Samples
| This field study was conducted to determine the ubiquity of petroleum-degrading bacteria in Texas coastal waters and sediments. Both water and sediment samples were collected and analyzed for microbial population numbers and oil chemistry. Data analysis included a correlation between microbial population numbers and the petroleum concentration for each sample. Sampling trips along the Texas coastline stretched from Port Arthur to South Padre Island. The region conditions ranged from pristine undeveloped sites to areas with a known history of petroleum contamination. A most-probable-number (MPN) technique was used to enumerate microbial populations within each sample for total heterotroph degraders, aliphatic (saturate) degraders, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) degraders. For petroleum analysis, the hydrocarbon analyses used gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC/MS). In both water and sediment samples, total heterotroph counts were higher than those for the aliphatic degraders and PAH degraders. Aliphatic degrading populations were generally higher in number than the PAH degraders. For the petroleum chemistry, low concentrations of PAHs were quantified, but no saturated hydrocarbons were detected. Although hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria appeared to be ubiquitous along the Texas coast, any correlations between the number of hydrocarbon degraders and the oil concentration were inconclusive. |
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