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Autochthonous bioaugmentation and its possible application to oil spills

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Abstract

Bioaugmentation for oil spills is a much more promising technique than is biostimulation. However, the effectiveness of bioaugmentation is variable, because the survival and the xenobiotic-degrading ability of introduced microorganisms are highly dependent on environmental conditions. As an alternative, autochthonous bioaugmentation (ABA) is proposed to overcome these difficulties. The ABA method is like a ready-made bioaugmentation technology. In ABA, microorganisms indigenous to the contaminated site or predicted contamination site that are well-characterized and potentially capable of degrading oils are used, and these microorganisms should be enriched under conditions where bioaugmentation will be conducted. It is possible to obtain information in advance on the chemical and physical characteristics of potential oil spill sites and of oils that might be spilled. The application of ABA in the coastal areas of Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan, is considered here, because Hokkaido is located south of Sakhalin Island, Russia, where development of oil fields is in progress. If oil spills in this region were well characterized in advance, ABA could be a feasible technology in the near future.

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Acknowledgments

Akio Ueno greatly contributed in the work on bioremediation conducted in our laboratory and provided critical feedback on this manuscript. The contribution by Jun Teragaki and Hanae Kondo is also appreciated. The authors also thank Dr. Y. Masuda of Shari Town Office, Hokkaido Prefecture, for his cooperation in sampling at Shiretoko and Ms. A. Kubo for her assistance in preparing the figure. This work was partly supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research ((C) no. 17510061) from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, and Culture of Japan and grants from Northern Advancement Center for Science & Technology, the Sumitomo Foundation and Institute for Fermentation, Osaka (IFO).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Course in Environmental Molecular Biology and Microbial Ecology, Division of Biosphere Science, Graduate School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido University, Kita-ku, Sapporo, 060-0810, Japan

    Reia Hosokawa, Motonori Nagai, Masaaki Morikawa & Hidetoshi Okuyama

  2. Laboratory of Environmental Molecular Biology, Faculty of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University, Kita ku, Sapporo, 060-0810, Japan

    Masaaki Morikawa & Hidetoshi Okuyama

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  1. Reia Hosokawa
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  2. Motonori Nagai
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  3. Masaaki Morikawa
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  4. Hidetoshi Okuyama
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Correspondence to Hidetoshi Okuyama.

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Hosokawa, R., Nagai, M., Morikawa, M. et al. Autochthonous bioaugmentation and its possible application to oil spills. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 25, 1519–1528 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-009-0044-0

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