Microbial diversity under the influence of natural gas storage in deep aquifers

The microorganisms from the formation water of a deep aquifer used for the storage of natural gas were sampled in order to assess their capacity to degrade BTEX. Before sampling, the monitoring well has been cleaned with a pecific process (brushing, chlorination, rinsing) to ensure that the bacterial community was not contaminated. The taxonomic diversity of the community was thus studied in order to better understand the structure of a bacterial community originating from deep continental environments.