RESEARCH ARTICLE
Bacterial community changes in response to oil contamination
and perennial crop cultivation
Lijuan Yan
1,2
&
Petri Penttinen
1,3
&
Anu Mikkonen
4
&
Kristina Lindström
1
Received: 11 September 2017 /Accepted: 28 February 2018 /Published online: 12 March 2018
#
Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract
We investigated bacterial community dynamics in response to used motor oil contamination and perennial crop cultivation by
16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing in a 4-year field study. Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria,and
Gemmatimonadetes were the major bacterial phyla, and Rhodococcus was the most abundant genus. Initially, oil contamination
decreased the overall bacterial diversity. Actinobacteria, Betaproteobacteria,andGammaproteobacteria were sensitive to oil
contamination, exhibiting clear succession with time. However, bacterial communities changed over time, regardless of oil
contamination and crop cultivation. The abundance difference of most OTUs between oil-contaminated and non-contaminated
plots remained the same in later sampling years after the initial abundance difference induced by oil spike. The abundances of
three oil-favored actinobacteria (Lysinimonas, Microbacteriaceae,andMarmoricola) and one betaproteobacterium
(Aquabacterium) changed in different manner over time in oil-contaminated and non-contaminated soil. We propose that these
taxa are potential bio-indicators for monitoring recovery from motor oil contamination in boreal soil. The effect of crop culti-
vation on bacterial communities became significant only after the crops achieved stable growth, likely associated with plant
material decomposition by Bacteroidetes, Armatimonadetes and Fibrobacteres.
Keywords Soil microbiome
.
Hydrocarbon contamination
.
Bioremediation
.
Perennial crop cultivation
.
16S rRNA gene
amplicon sequencing
.
Temporal abundance change
Introduction
Soil pollution by petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs) origi-
nating from crude oil or refined petroleum products poses
a significant threat to the environment. In particular, used
motor oil that contains high concentrations of aliphatics,
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and heavy
metals (e.g., lead, zinc, chromium, barium, and arsenic)
contributes to chronic hazards including carcinogenicity
(Dominguez-Rosado et al. 2004; Vazquez-Duhalt 1989).
Microorganisms can degrade PHCs and utilize them as
carbon and energy sources in a natural attenuation pro-
cess. Nitrogen is frequently a limiting factor in oil-
contaminated soils (Wenzel 2009). Thus, the nitrogen-
fixing legume-rhizobium symbiosis has potential to assist
in the biodegradation of PHCs (Dominguez-Rosado and
Pichtel 2004). The cultivation of oil-tolerant perennial le-
gumes holds promise for accelerated oil degradation with
additional bonus of biomass for bioenergy production.
Fodder galega (Galega orientalis Lam.), a perennial for-
age legume, and smooth brome (Bromus inermis L.), a
Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article
(https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-1635-9) contains supplementary
material, which is available to authorized users.
* Petri Penttinen
petri.penttinen@helsinki.fi
1
Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, PO
Box 65, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland
2
Present address: Department of Environmental Sciences, University
of Helsinki, Niemenkatu 73, FI-15140 Lahti, Finland
3
Present address: Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Carbon
Cycling in Forest Ecosystems and Carbon Sequestration, School of
Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang Agriculture &
Forestry University, Huancheng North Road 88, Lin’an 311300,
China
4
Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of
Jyväskylä, PO Box 35, FI-40014 Jyväskylä, Finland
Environmental Science and Pollution Research (2018) 25:14575–14584
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-1635-9
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