Posts
-Methane: Colorless odorless gas used in stoves. Dangerous to Fish and undersea plant life
-BP: British Petroleum, the oil company who's offshore oil rig exploded the gulf of mexico causing this whole disaster
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Summary: A new study by John Kessler, from Texas A&M University shows that small bacteria in the Gulf of Mexico may have consumed almost all of the dangerous methane leaked by BP oil spill. After the spill, they expected to Methane bubbling to the surface. When this did not occur, they took water samples, expecting to find the methane slowly decomposing but still very much there. To their surprise, they found little or no evidence of methane in the water. The question now comes up whether the methane was simply washed away or was being actively taken out of the system. To answer this question the scientists looked at the levels of oxygen deep in the ocean and found them depleted. This backed up their hypothesis that the bacteria actually consumed the methane because when that said bacteria performed this, it turned the methane in CO2, H2O, and other carbon compounds by sucking in oxygen from the surrounding water.
Discussion: This could be a great way to get rid of undersea methane leaks in the future if scientists could learn how to grow massive numbers of these bacteria and use them around the world. I liked this article because it was concerned with the big BP oil spill which was and is a huge environmental disaster. Biotechnology like this could help us stop disasters like this in the future. This article relates to my life in that spills like this could drastically impact the life and economy of america.
Questions:
-What was the actual name of the bacteria in question
-how does methane impact fish life
Citations:
Harris, Richard. "Study Finds Bacteria Ate Most Methane from BP Well."
NPR.org. NPR, 6 Jan. 2011. Web. 9 Jan. 2011. <http://www.npr.org/
2011/01/06/132706612/study-finds-bacteria-ate-most-methane-from-bp-well>.
