Bioremediation (bioaugmentation/biostimulation) trials of oil polluted seawater: A mesocosm simulation study

Bioaugmentation (amendment with selected bacterial strains) and/or biostimulation (nutrients addition and/or air supply) are relatively new fields in environmental microbiology for preventing pollution and cleanup contamination. In this study, the efficiency of application of bioaugmentation/biostimulation treatments, for recovery of crude oil-polluted seawater, was evaluated. Three different series of experiments were performed in a “Mesocosm Facility” (10.000 L). Natural seawater was artificially polluted with crude oil (1000 ppm) and was amended with inorganic nutrients (Mesocosm 1, M1), inorganic nutrient and an inoculum of Alcanivorax borkumensis SK2T (Mesocosm 2, M2) and inorganic nutrient and an inoculum of A. borkumensis SK2T and Thalassolituus oleivorans MIL-1T (Mesocosm 3, M3), respectively. During the experimental period (20 days) bacterial abundance (DAPI count), culturable heterotrophic bacteria (CFU count), MPN, microbial metabolic activity [Biochemical Oxygen Demand and enzymatic activity (leucine aminopeptidase LAP, β-glucosidase BG, alkaline phosphatase AP)] and quali-, quantitative analysis of the composition of total extracted and resolved hydrocarbons and their derivates (TERHCs) were carried out. The microbiological and physiological analysis of marine microbial community found during the three different biostimulation and bioaugmentation assays performed in mesocosms show that the load of crude oil increases total microbial abundance, inhibits the activity of some enzymes such as LAP while stimulates both AP and BG activities. The biodegradation results show that bioaugmentation with A. borkumensis SK2T alone is able to produce the highest percentage of degradation (95%) in comparison with the biostimulation treatment (80%) and bioaugmentation using an Alcanivorax-Thalassolituus bacterial consortium (70%). This result highlights the reduced biodegradation capability of the consortium used in this study, suggesting an unfavourable interaction between the two bacterial genera. •Bioaugmentation and biostimulation mesocosms were designed for oil biodegradation.•Load of crude oil increases microbial abundance and inhibits the activity of enzymes.•The consortium bioaugmentation mesocosm has the lowest biodegradation capability.