In the aftermath of the explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon
drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, a dispersed oil plume was
formed at a depth between 3,600 and 4,000 feet and extending
some 10 miles out from the wellhead. An intensive study by
scientists with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
(Berkeley Lab) and the Advanced Light Source found that
microbial activity, spearheaded by a new and unclassified
species, degrades oil much faster than anticipated. This
degradation appears to take place without a significant level of
oxygen depletion. |Microbes are degrading oil in the deepwater
plume from the BP oil spill in the Gulf, a study by Berkeley Lab
researchers has shown. (Image from Hoi-Ying Holman group)| “Our
findings show that the influx of oil profoundly altered the
microbial community by significantly stimulating deep-sea
psychrophilic (cold temperature) gamma-proteobacteria that are
closely related to known petroleum-degrading microbes,” says
Terry Hazen, a microbial ecologist with Berkeley Lab’s