Oil spills“Encouraged” bacteria cleaning up more effectively after oil spills
Bioremediation is nature’s way of cleaning up. Plants, bacterial decomposers, or enzymes are used to remove contaminants and restore the balance of nature in the wake of pollution incidents. What is surprising is that given the right kind of encouragement, bacteria can be even more effective. Researchers in Norway have achieved surprising results by exploiting nature’s own ability to clean up after oil spills.
Marine bacteria can assist in cleaning up after oil spills. What is surprising is that given the right kind of encouragement, they can be even more effective.
“We know that oil spills happen — and that they will happen again,” says Roman Netzer, a researcher and biologist at SINTEF. “We also know that this can have a major negative impact on the natural environment. This is why we’ve been studying a series of chemical and biological analytical techniques to assess the levels of seriousness of oil spills. We also wanted to find out whether so-called bioremediation represents an effective approach to cleaning up after such accidents”, he explains.
Bioremediation is nature’s way of cleaning up. Plants, bacterial decomposers, or enzymes are used to remove contaminants and restore the balance of nature in the wake of pollution incidents.
Tool box
A SINTEF release reports that when we clean up after an oilspill of a given size, such as along our shorelines, we start by applying mechanical methods using spades and brooms, combined with chemicals. We should not, however, deceive ourselves, even when the worst of the spill has been cleared away. The surface usually conceals oil buried deeper in the sediment.
“It is here that biological, or bioremediation, methods, come into their own”, says Netzer. “This approach can make cleaning up operations even more thorough, and cost-effective. We wanted to find out what works — and how. And not least to gather data that can be used to support decision-making processes in situations where nature needs that little extra help” he explains.
So the researchers set up a number of experiments in the marine laboratory. Their aim was to look into how the microscopic residents of the oceans, such as bacteria and other microbes, can assist us in cleaning up pollutants, and whether they are capable of restoring the natural balance afterwards. And not least, to determine the limiting factors involved in this process.
It was only after they had failed to achieve any significant response from their initial experiments, causing them to change the experimental parameters, that their sensational results emerged.
