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