Arctic sea-ice microorganisms

Studies addressing the fate of dispersed oil in ice have so far used sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene amplicons for the characterization of ice-inhabiting microbial communities, which does not enable direct functional profiling, including mapping the hydrocarbon degradation potential, of the communities and detection of key organisms involved in oil components degradation in these complicated environments. The conclusions about oil hydrocarbon degradation capabilities of dominant organisms in these studies have been made relying on the information obtained from the metagenomic studies conducted in dispersed oil-contaminated seawater, clean ice, or oil-slick containing ice. Hence the filling of the void of knowledge concerning hydrocarbon biodegradative and metabolic potential and capacities of major microbial groups in oil-contaminated ice has been called for. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of dispersant application on temporal dynamics of microbial community succession and oil hydrocarbon degradation potential during 89 days of ice formation from the dispersed crude oil containing Arctic sea-water. The specific aim was to explore the taxonomic, hydrocarbon degradative and general metabolic characteristics dominant organisms inhabiting dispersed oil-containing sea-ice and compare the metabolic ability of these species with similar organisms inhabiting seawater, clean ice and oil-containing ice based on metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs) groups.