In the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which sent an estimated 4.9 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico during three months in 2010, nature continued to do what it has long done – slowly but surely break down the oil into its constituent parts including carbon dioxide and water.
Oil in the environment is nothing new. Petroleum seeps – leaks of natural gas, crude oil and bitumen into the Earth’s atmosphere or onto its surface, including the ocean floor – have been recorded as far back as the Paleolithic Era. Recent studies have documented their occurrence around the world in places such as the Arctic, the Gulf of Mexico and on the west coast of California.
Scientific studies have verified that naturally occurring microorganisms in the environment, primarily bacteria and fungi, have a huge capacity for breaking down, or degrading, oil. “Taking into account the volume of oil released from natural seeps, if it weren’t for microbial degradation we’d probably be knee deep in oil,” says Dr. Kenneth Lee, Executive Director of the Centre for Offshore Oil, Gas and Energy Research (COOGER), a Fisheries and Oceans Canada centre of expertise headquartered at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. COOGER coordinates research efforts into the environmental and oceanographic impacts of offshore petroleum exploration, production and transportation. The work conducted by this research group has established an international reputation for Fisheries and Oceans Canada in oil spill response research.
Oceans Rebound from Oil Spills with the Aid of Microbes
In the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which sent an estimated 4.9 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico during three months in 2010, nature continued to do what it has long done – slowly but surely break down the oil into its constituent parts including carbon dioxide and water.
Oil in the environment is nothing new. Petroleum seeps – leaks of natural gas, crude oil and bitumen into the Earth’s atmosphere or onto its surface, including the ocean floor – have been recorded as far back as the Paleolithic Era. Recent studies have documented their occurrence around the world in places such as the Arctic, the Gulf of Mexico and on the west coast of California.
Scientific studies have verified that naturally occurring microorganisms in the environment, primarily bacteria and fungi, have a huge capacity for breaking down, or degrading, oil. “Taking into account the volume of oil released from natural seeps, if it weren’t for microbial degradation we’d probably be knee deep in oil,” says Dr. Kenneth Lee, Executive Director of the Centre for Offshore Oil, Gas and Energy Research (COOGER), a Fisheries and Oceans Canada centre of expertise headquartered at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. COOGER coordinates research efforts into the environmental and oceanographic impacts of offshore petroleum exploration, production and transportation. The work conducted by this research group has established an international reputation for Fisheries and Oceans Canada in oil spill response research.
Oceans Rebound from Oil Spills with the Aid of Microbes