Now you see it, now you don't. According to news reports last week, the plume of oil in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico is no more. But just days earlier, the subsurface plume had been proclaimed a long-lived menace. A second study on the plume, led by Terry Hazen, a microbial ecologist from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, was published on 24 August. Although Hazen's team measured stable oxygen levels, the group also found oil-eating microbes of the order Oceanospirillales and saw intense microbial activity. It seemed the microbes were making quick work of the plume — at least in late May to early June, when the measurements were taken. More>
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
The mystery of the missing oil plume
Now you see it, now you don't. According to news reports last week, the plume of oil in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico is no more. But just days earlier, the subsurface plume had been proclaimed a long-lived menace. A second study on the plume, led by Terry Hazen, a microbial ecologist from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, was published on 24 August. Although Hazen's team measured stable oxygen levels, the group also found oil-eating microbes of the order Oceanospirillales and saw intense microbial activity. It seemed the microbes were making quick work of the plume — at least in late May to early June, when the measurements were taken. More>
Posts
