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Abstract
Spills of non-petroleum hydrocarbons including vegetable oils and fish oils are of environmental concern because of their potential to cause serious effects on marine life and coastal environments. Biodegradation by indigenous microorganisms is an important and potentially ubiquitous process affecting both the chemical composition and physical properties of contaminant oils. Data on the environmental persistence of non-petroleum oils is now required for risk assessments and decision making by spill responders. This article investigates the biodegradability of various vegetable and fish oils under the influence of natural bacteria in seawater.
The influence of nutrients and microbial environment on changes in bacterial numbers and the extent and rate of degradation for various test oils (olive, mustard, canola and cod liver oils) were studied over time. Time-series visual and microscopic observations were made to characterize physical changes in the residual oils, formation of floating and precipitate particles, oil droplets and dispersion.
The biodegradation process was significantly influenced by environmental conditions, with a higher rate and extent of biodegradation observed in seawater amended with nutrients and wastewater that contained elevated numbers of bacteria and nutrients. It was observed that different oils respond in different rates and extents to biodegradation depending on their stability, viscosity and compositions. All results clearly revealed a significant response of the oil-contaminated samples to both the seawater and wastewater environments. Observations on changes in the physical properties of the residual oil may be important in the context of oil spill response strategies. For example, simple physical recovery methods may be used to recover polymeric lumps at the sea surface.
Notes
The authors would like to thank the Environmental Sciences Strategic Research Fund of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Ena Macpherson from the Canadian Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT) at Dalhousie University and Audrey Mountain from the Biology Department at Dalhousie University for their help in the laboratory work. Special thanks and appreciation from the first author to NSERC and Killiam Trustees of Dalhousie University for their scholarships and generous funding.