MICROBIAL METABOLISM OF DIESEL FUEL IN A TROPICAL ISLAND AQUIFER
Loading...
Date
Authors
Contributor
Advisor
Editor
Performer
Department
Instructor
Depositor
Speaker
Researcher
Consultant
Interviewer
Interviewee
Narrator
Transcriber
Annotator
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal Name
Volume
Number/Issue
Starting Page
Ending Page
Alternative Title
Abstract
Description
ABSTRACT
Petroleum and petroleum-derived product contamination, also known as petroleum hydrocarbon (PH) contamination, has been a significant global environmental issue for decades. While PH degradation has been well studied in soils and surface environments, we still know little about the microbial ecology of PH degradation in subsurface aquatic ecosystems. In November of 2021, the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility on Oʻahu spilled 19,000 gallons of diesel jet fuel (JP-5) into the Red Hill Shaft, potentially contaminating the groundwater aquifer the shaft draws from. However, due to limited knowledge of PH contamination in the context of Oʻahu’s aquifers, it is unknown how microbial communities in groundwater ecosystems can facilitate the degradation of these refined fuels. Therefore, we performed an experiment focused on quantifying the changes of microbial communities in the presence of JP-5 and their ability to transform or
remove refined diesel hydrocarbons. Groundwater was incubated with JP-5 for a period of 28 days. Throughout the experiment, samples for scanning excitation-emission fluorescence spectroscopy, flow cytometry, Total Organic Carbon, and microbial community profiling were collected. Fluorescence spectroscopy and dissolved organic carbon allowed for the analysis of dissolved organic matter compositional changes and JP-5 consumption while flow cytometry measurements and DNA allowed for the analysis of microbial growth and community compositional changes. My results demonstrated that diesel fuel addition singular microbe, Novosphingobium (Class Alphaproteobacteria, Family
Sphingomonadaceae), which came to numerically dominate the community. Throughout the experiment, Total Organic Carbon decreased along with Total Nitrogen, indicating that the microbes were metabolizing JP-5. While ongoing research is further characterizing the chemical composition of petroleum hydrocarbons as the fuel biodegrades, from this experiment we can infer that our aquifers on Oʻahu can be a valuable source of bacterial bioremediation for future PH contamination events.
Keywords
Citation
DOI
Extent
Format
Type
Text
Geographic Location
Time Period
Related To
Related To (URI)
Table of Contents
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Inn, Skye
Inn, Skye
Rights Holder
Catalog Record
Local Contexts
Collections
Email libraryada-l@lists.hawaii.edu if you need this content in ADA-compliant format.