S40: Microbial community dynamics on an oil contaminated beach following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Despite significant efforts to protect hundreds of miles of beaches, wetlands and estuaries from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, oil began washing up on the Gulf Coast in early May 2010. In this study, we aimed to determine the temporal response of the autochthonous microbial communities to the oil on a heavily-impacted beach on Elmer’s Island, Louisiana. Analysis of deep 16S rRNA gene pyrotag sequence data revealed that the oil-contaminated samples were dominated by members of the Alpha- and Gammaproteobacteria and that there was a succession in the microbial community over time. We also sequenced RNA extracted from the samples to determine which microbes and functions were active. Our combined 16S rRNA and metatranscriptome sequence data revealed a rapid response of the natural beach microbial community to oil contaminants, including prevalence of bacteria endowed with the functional capacity to degrade oil. By correlation to hydrocarbon data from the same samples, we determined that the oil originating from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill underwent further degradation by indigenous microbial consortia on the beach.