
Proliferation of hydrocarbon-degrading microbes at the bottom of Mariana Trench - okket
https://microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40168-019-0652-3
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mitchbob
Are there practical uses for "hydrocarbon-degrading" microbes? Like cleaning
up oil spills? Or eating the plastic that the oceans are filling up with?

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whatshisface
Oil is constantly spilling into the ocean at small rates, and has been for
eons. Without these bacteria it would build up forever, fortunately as long as
the rate of introduction is not excessively high it gets metabolized.

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toomuchtodo
Could you inject these microbes directly into oil wells, perhaps in drilling
fluid, to prevent extraction of said oil?

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whatshisface
The microbes are one step ahead of you. Apparently, "Accumulations of
biodegraded oils are abundant and have been a problem for petroleum production
since the beginning of commercial oil production." [0]

[0][http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1517...](http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1517-83822008000300007)

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toomuchtodo
The challenge is now how to ramp this up if we’re not willing to leave oil in
the ground voluntarily.

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whatshisface
According to this[1] paper, the bacteria are already essentially everywhere
and the process is limited by the presence of water.

[1]
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187167841...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1871678418316935)

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troymc
"...three _Alcanivorax_ species that were isolated from 10,400 m water
supplemented with hexadecane were able to efficiently degrade n-alkanes under
conditions simulating the deep sea, as did a reference _Oleibacter_ strain
cultured at atmospheric pressure."

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dmix
Interestingly the "Hadal zone" being referenced in the article is based on the
greek myth "Hades":

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadal_zone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadal_zone)

> The cumulative area occupied by the 46 individual hadal habitats worldwide
> is less than 0.25 percent of the world's seafloor

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RenRav
Would bacteria from that region tolerate normal atmospheric pressures?

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tejtm
Eight orders of magnitude pressure difference, not likely in one generation.

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tejtm
yep that is wrong.

mistook 1 *10^8 Pa as, times "pressure atmosphere".

it is only three orders of magnitude greater psi

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ncmncm
Three orders of magnitude qualifies as "a hell of a lot" in any reasonable
estimate.

