Composition and radiocarbon content of phospholipid fatty acids extracted from Deepwater Horizon oil/sand aggregates in Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, 2015

Oil/sand aggregates ("sand patties"; surface residual balls; tarballs) originating from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and non-oiled sand samples were collected from beaches in Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida in 2015 to determine on-going biodegradation in oil residues, Phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis was performed to characterize the microbial communities. Radiocarbon analysis of the PLFA fraction was conducted to determine the presence of petroleum-derived carbon in the microbial biomass. This dataset supports the publication: Bostic, J.T., Aeppli, C., Swarthout, R.F., Reddy, C.M., & Ziolkowski, L.A. (2018). Ongoing biodegradation of Deepwater Horizon oil in beach sands: Insights from tracing petroleum carbon into microbial biomass. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 126: 130–136. doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.10.058

2015年，研究人员从美国密西西比州、阿拉巴马州及佛罗里达州的海滩采集了源自深水地平线（Deepwater Horizon）漏油事件的油砂团聚体（俗称"砂饼"、表面残留球状物与焦油球）以及未受石油污染的砂样，以解析油残体中持续发生的生物降解过程。研究通过磷脂脂肪酸（Phospholipid Fatty Acid, PLFA）分析技术表征微生物群落结构，并对PLFA组分开展放射性碳分析，以判定微生物生物量中是否存在石油来源碳。本数据集支撑下述已发表学术成果：Bostic, J.T.、Aeppli, C.、Swarthout, R.F.、Reddy, C.M. 与 Ziolkowski, L.A.（2018）《海滩砂中深水地平线原油的持续生物降解：基于石油碳向微生物生物量示踪的研究启示》，《海洋污染公报（Marine Pollution Bulletin）》，第126卷，页码130–136，DOI:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.10.058