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Impact of crude oil on bacteriocenosis of the digestive tract of mollusks
Author(s) -
Šyvokienė J.,
Mickėnienė L.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
environmental toxicology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.813
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1522-7278
pISSN - 1520-4081
DOI - 10.1002/tox.20029
Subject(s) - digestive tract , bacteria , crude oil , biology , contamination , hydrocarbon , microbiology and biotechnology , environmental chemistry , chemistry , ecology , medicine , genetics , organic chemistry , petroleum engineering , engineering
In this study the effect of crude oil on intestinal bacterial populations of the mollusk Viviparus contactus was investigated. The addition of crude oil into an environment of mollusks induced no clear changes in the saprophytic, amylolytic, and total coliform bacterial counts in the digestive tract of the mollusk. After 10 days of contamination, the saprophytic, amylolytic, and total coliform bacterial numbers were of the same order of magnitude as the initial numbers. Significant numbers of indigenous hydrocarbon‐degrading bacteria were observed in the intestinal tracts of mollusks before contamination with crude oil. Introduction of crude oil into the mollusk environment resulted in an increase of 2 orders of magnitude in the number of hydrocarbon‐degrading bacteria in the digestive tract. Therefore, measuring the hydrocarbon‐degrading bacterial populations in the digestive tracts of hydrobionts can be considered an important component of contaminated‐site assessment studies. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 19: 421–424, 2004.