Inter- and Intra-Annual Bacterioplankton Community Patterns in a Deepwater Sub-Arctic Region: Persistent High Background Abundance of Putative Oil Degraders

Abstract

Oil spills at sea are one of the most disastrous anthropogenic pollution events, with the Deepwater Horizon spill providing a testament to how profoundly the health of marine ecosystems and the livelihood of its coastal inhabitants can be severely impacted by spilled oil. The fate of oil in the environment is largely dictated by the presence and activities of natural communities of oil-degrading bacteria.