Kelly's Blog Post
14 October 2010 | Gulf of Mexico
Kelly Speare
My goal is to study the microbial community living in the water column as well as in the deep-sea sediments. I am comparing bacterial communities and bacterial activity in oil-contaminated sediments, as well as sediments that have not been affected by the oil. We will analyze sediment samples taken at the beginning of the spill and samples from several months after the spill to study how the microbial community has changed over time. I will analyze sediment samples in areas affected by the spill that are covered by a flocculated material that forms in oil-contaminated waters and sinks to the bottom, creating a blanket of marine snow possibly containing droplets of oil-degrading microbes found in surface waters. I will also compare surface and deeper sediment layers in areas with and without direct oil contamination. We will investigate weather or not the bacteria in the sediments are growing on the oil, and what proportion of their carbon intake comes directly from the oil. By comparing sediment samples taken during the spill and after the spill we can study the rate at which carbon from the oil reaches bacteria on the sediment surface as well as in deeper layers.