Department of Infection Diseases, National Institute of Health, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161, Rome, Italy.
Core Facilities, National Institute of Health, Rome, Italy.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2021 May;28(20):26187-26196. doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-13885-8. Epub 2021 Apr 19.
Microbiomes of freshwater basins intended for human use remain poorly studied, with very little known about the microbial response to in situ oil spills. Lake Pertusillo is an artificial freshwater reservoir in Basilicata, Italy, and serves as the primary source of drinking water for more than one and a half million people in the region. Notably, it is located in close proximity to one of the largest oil extraction plants in Europe. The lake suffered a major oil spill in 2017, where approximately 400 tons of crude oil spilled into the lake; importantly, the pollution event provided a rare opportunity to study how the lacustrine microbiome responds to petroleum hydrocarbon contamination. Water samples were collected from Lake Pertusillo 10 months prior to and 3 months after the accident. The presence of hydrocarbons was verified and the taxonomic and functional aspects of the lake microbiome were assessed. The analysis revealed specialized successional patterns of lake microbial communities that were potentially capable of degrading complex, recalcitrant hydrocarbons, including aromatic, chloroaromatic, nitroaromatic, and sulfur containing aromatic hydrocarbons. Our findings indicated that changes in the freshwater microbial community were associated with the oil pollution event, where microbial patterns identified in the lacustrine microbiome 3 months after the oil spill were representative of its hydrocarbonoclastic potential and may serve as effective proxies for lacustrine oil pollution.
用于人类使用的淡水盆地的微生物组仍未得到充分研究，对于原位石油泄漏对微生物的响应知之甚少。佩尔图西略湖是意大利巴西利卡塔的一个人工淡水水库，是该地区超过 150 万人的主要饮用水源。值得注意的是，它位于欧洲最大的石油开采厂之一附近。该湖于 2017 年发生重大溢油事故，约有 400 吨原油溢入湖中；重要的是，这次污染事件为研究湖泊微生物组对石油碳氢化合物污染的反应提供了难得的机会。在事故发生前 10 个月和发生后 3 个月，从佩尔图西略湖采集了水样。验证了碳氢化合物的存在，并评估了湖泊微生物组的分类和功能方面。分析显示，湖泊微生物群落具有专业化的演替模式，这些群落可能具有降解复杂、难降解的碳氢化合物的能力，包括芳香族、氯代芳香族、硝基芳香族和含硫芳香族碳氢化合物。我们的研究结果表明，淡水微生物群落的变化与石油污染事件有关，在溢油事故发生 3 个月后，湖泊微生物组中识别出的微生物模式代表了其烃类降解潜力，并且可以作为湖泊石油污染的有效替代物。
