Characteristics of Microorganisms Associated with Crude Oil Impacted Surface Water Body in Bodo/Bonny River, Nigeria

Abstract

The contamination of water is a serious environmental problem as it adversely affects the human health and the biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems. The organisms that inhabit the water space use oxygen for metabolic activities and the blocking of the water surface of the river by total petroleum hydrocarbons tend to reduce the dissolved oxygen available within the system thereby making the survival of aquatic life difficult particularly the non-hydrocarbon utilizing microorganisms. The aim of this study was to determine the microbiological characteristics of water samples from Bodo/Bonny River impacted by crude oil spill. Water and dead fish samples were collected from four stations while the fifth sample was collected from a link fish pond which served as control.  Microbiological analysis of samples collected was analysed accordingly using standard analytical methods.  Bacterial isolates from the sampling stations show that Vibrio cholerae, Shigella sp, Escherichia coli, Vibrio sp, Salmonella sp, Bacillus sp, Klebsiella sp, Actinomycetes, Clostridium, Listeria sp, Acinetobacter and Pseudomonas sp and fungal isolates namely,  Aspergillus niger, Penicillium sp, Aspergillus flavus, Rhizopus, Mucor sp and Candida sp were identified. Percentage occurrence of both isolates show that E. coli 15%, Vibrio species 13%, Pseudomonas 12%, Klebsiella 12% and Shigella 9% while Aspergillus niger had 37.18%, while Mucor had 25.64%, Penicillium sp 11.38%, Aspergillus flavus 11.38% and Candida sp 10.26%.Microorganisms isolated from the river water that survived the harsh influences associated with oil spill from this study shows that most of the microorganisms could be genetically cloned as hydrocarbon utilizing organisms for cleanup of oil contaminated environments because of their existence and sustenance to mankind.