Response of bacterial soil communities to a small oil spill at the Argentine base Carlini on King George/25 de Mayo Island (Antarctica)

VAZQUEZ S.; JÜRGENS J.; MONIEN P.; MAC CORMACK W.; HELMKE E.

Workshop; 3rd. IMCOAST Workshop; 2012

The cooperation between the Microbiology Group from the IAA and Dr. Helmke from the AWI focuses on the study of the composition and dynamics of bacterial communities from hydrocarbon contaminated soils surrounding Carlini Station and sediments of Potter Cove, King George (25 de Mayo) Island, Antarctica. The long term objective is to contribute to a deeper knowledge about the state of contamination of chronically and acutely impacted areas and the structure, dynamics and functionality regarding hydrocarbon degradation capacity of the microbial communities in polar marine soils and sediments. In this sense, our aims are: 1) to analyze the differences in bacterial communities and to monitor the state of contamination of soils and sediments recently impacted by an accidental spill of diesel oil that occurred at Carlini Station on October 2009; 2) to identify the dominant bacterial groups present in unpolluted soils and sediments near Carlini Station; 3) to detect the relevant oil degrading bacterial populations in diesel oil contaminated soils and sediments and 4) to contribute to the establishment of an appropriate bioremediation method for this area based on the acquired knowledge. In addition, samples from pristine and polluted soils taken in the past ten years along three transects parallel to the shoreline at Carlini Station are planned to be analyzed later on to describe the history of contamination and long‐term changes in the composition of affected bacterial communities.