Bioremediation of petroleum hydrocarbon contaminants in marine habitats

Bioremediation is being increasingly seen as an effective, environmentally benign treatment for shorelines contaminated as a result of marine oil spil ls. Despite a relatively long history of research on oil-spill bioremediati on, it remains an essentially empirical technology and many of the factors that control bioremediation have yet to be adequately understood, Nutrient amendment is a widely accepted practice in oil-spill bioremediation but the re is scant understanding of the systematic effects of nutrient amendment o n biodegradative microbial populations or the progress of bioremediation. R ecent laboratory and field research suggests that resource-ratio theory may provide a theoretical framework that explains the effects of nutrient amen dment on indigenous microbial populations. In particular, the theory has be en invoked to explain recent observations that nutrient levels, and their r elative concentration, influence the composition of hydrocarbon-degrading m icrobial populations. This in turn influences the biodegradation rate of al iphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons. If such results are confirmed in the fie ld, then it may be possible to use this theoretical framework to select bio remediation treatments that specifically encourage the rapid destruction of the most toxic components of complex pollutant mixtures.