Microbial diversity analysis of pipe-associated water (PAW) and pipe-associated solid (PAS) samples from a hydrocarbon resource environments using next-generation 16S pyrosequencing

Corrosion problems in the brackish water gathering and treatment facilities at a Foster Creek site prompted investigation of possible corrosion mechanisms. Our previous work have shown that microorganisms associated with microbially influenced corrosion (MIC) including sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) as well as methanogens influenced the system upstream and downstream of the treatment facilities. In this study, we present the use of high throughput DNA pyrosequencing to specifically characterize the microbial diversity of all the samples (both water and pipeline) and to assess which microorganisms are involved in the corrosion observed.