The bacteria is named Alcanivorax and actually its microbial feasting is known as biodegradation.
Alcanivorax is among a class of the microbes known as hydrocarbonoclastic, the name denoting the disassembly of hydrocarbons, the building blocks of oil.
(source: NY times)
Among of all alkane-degrading bacteries, this is probably most important bacterium in microbial biodegradation. When nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients are supplemented in the water, Alcanivorax is very active in cleaning crude-oil seawater's pollution. It also completely removes oil from the seasurface and just below the seasurface.
Current studies are trying to find out, how much and how quickly can hordes of these microorganisms help recuperate the healthy sea enviroment. Some scientists depend on Alcanivorax believing that it removes crude oil completely. Others are not so optimistic saying that microbial biodegradation in polluted marshes should be considerably slower than expected.
Furthermore, Alcanivorax as other bacterias consumes oxygen. And the fact that billions of voracious bacterias are suddenly consuming oxygen in the Gulf can has its drawbacks. The oxygen levels in the sea can fall too low that it would threaten other sealife, especially other marine species living on oil: communities of clams, mussels and tube worms that flourish in the sunless depths of the gulf.
Altough the great leak of Deepwater Horizon is considered as irreversible catastrophe for the sealive in the Mexico Gulf, it seems that millions years of little seabed leaking of the oil at fairly constant rate helped species get used to some oil dispersion in the water. The warm water, sufficient levels of oxygen and enough of nutrients actually helped species to regulate amounts of the crude oil entering the Gulf through natural seeps.
Finally, it can be inferred that the nature still has its ways to recover from oil pollutions caused by unwary human behavior.
No comments:
Post a Comment