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Microbes ate BP oil deep-water plume: study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Manhattan-sized plume of oil spewed deep into the Gulf of Mexico by BP's broken Macondo well has been consumed by a newly discovered fast-eating species of microbes, scientists reported on Tuesday.

The micro-organisms were apparently stimulated by the massive oil spill that began in April, and they degraded the hydrocarbons so efficiently that the plume is now undetectable, said Terry Hazen of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

These so-called proteobacteria -- Hazen calls them "bugs" -- have adapted to the cold deep water where the big BP plume was observed and are able to biodegrade hydrocarbons much more quickly than expected, without significantly depleting oxygen as most known oil-depleting bacteria do....


FEASTING ON HYDROCARBONS Long before humans drilled for oil, natural oil seeps in the Gulf of Mexico have put out the equivalent of an Exxon Valdez spill each year, Hazen said.

Another factor was the consistency of the oil that came from the Macondo wellhead: light sweet Louisiana crude, an easily digestible substance for bacteria, and it was dispersed into tiny droplets, which also makes it more biodegradable. These latest findings may initially seem to be at odds with a study published last Thursday in Science by researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, which confirmed the existence of the oil plume and said micro-organisms did not seem to be biodegrading it very quickly.

However, Hazen and Rich Camilli of Woods Hole both said on Tuesday that the studies complement each other.

Full article here

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ORIGINAL: BoiJen

Sanity,

Would you drink the water from the plume? Or maybe give it to your dog or a child relative?

boi

quote:

New microbe discovered eating oil spill in Gulf



This microbe thrives in cold water, with temperatures in the deep recorded at 5 degrees Celsius (41 Fahrenheit).

Hazen suggested that the bacteria may have adapted over time due to periodic leaks and natural seeps of oil in the Gulf...

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...natural oil seeps in the Gulf of Mexico have put out the equivalent of an Exxon Valdez spill each year, Hazen said.

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ORIGINAL: samboct

From Science- issue cited previously p. 735 "The report states that according to early signs, the oil is "biodegrading rapidly" quickly. It provides no documentation for that claim.....

Science without data is opinion- not science.

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ORIGINAL: Kirata

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ORIGINAL: samboct

And let me show you to a wonderful bridge in Brooklyn... while this is a nice hypothesis- there's no evidence to back it up.

Bull-fucking-shit. The results being reported are based on more than 200 samples that were collected from 17 different deepwater sites in the Gulf. The research was conducted by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory located in Berkeley, California. The full press release is at lbl.gov:

Study shows deep water oil plume in Gulf degraded by microbes

And from Science:

scientists are now starting to think the oil will be gone much sooner than people thought before. "We're talking days to months."

K.