International Journal of Marine Science 2015, Vol.5, No.27: 1-11
1
Research Report Open Access
The Effect of Biostimulation and Biostimulation-Bioaugmentation on
Biodegradation of Oil-Pollution on Sandy Beaches Using Mesocosms
Yeti Darmayati
1,4
, Harpasis S. Sanusi
2
, Tri Prartono
2
, Dwi Andreas Santosa
3
, Ruyitno Nuchsin
4
1. School of Post Graduate Studies, Bogor Agriculture University, Bogor 16680, Indonesia
2. Department of Marine Science. Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences, Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia
3. Department of Soil and Land Resources, Faculty of Agriculture, Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia
4. Research Center for Oceanography, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Indonesia
Corresponding author email
International Journal of Marine Science, 2015, Vol.5, No.27 doi: 10.5376/ijms.2015.05.0027
Received: 11 Jan., 2015
Accepted: 16 Feb., 2015
Published: 28 Apr., 2015
Copyright
©
2015 Darmayati et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Darmayati et al., 2015, The Effect of Biostimulation and Biostimulation-Bioaugmentation on Biodegradation of Oil-Pollution on Sandy Beaches Using
Mesocosms, International Journal of Marine Science, Vol.5, No.27: 1-11 (doi: 10.5376/ijms.2015.05.0027)
Abstract
To investigate a suitable biological remediation approaches for anticipating oil spills in Cilacap sandy beach (Indonesia),
some alternative strategies using biostimulation and a combination of biostimulation-bioaugmentation have been evaluated in inter
tidal near shore Cilacap, Indonesia. The purpose of the study was to compare the efficacy of biostimulation using slow release
fertilizer (SRF) only, combination of biostimulation-single strain bioaugmentation, and combination of biostimulation-consortium
bioaugmentation, to enhance oil degradation. The experiment was conducted using sediment polluted 100,000 ppm Arabian Light
Crude Oil in a mesocosm system for 90 days. The parameters measured were oil depletion, bacterial growth and changes in
environmental conditions. The results showed that the affectivity on oil depletion of biostimulation-bioaugmentation combination
was observed faster and higher than biostimulation only. At the 16
th
day application, the biostimulation with the added consortium
and single strain treatment, increased oil depletion percentage by 2.2 and 1.6 times that of the control, respectively. For a longer
period of treatment, both of combination treatments showed similar efficacy in degrading oil contamination in sandy beach. It is
proposed that combination of biostimulation-bioaugmentation with the consortium is relatively better alternative for combating
oil-pollution for a short period.
Keywords
Biostimulation; Bioaugmentation; Oil Spill; Oil Degradation; Sandy Beach;Mesocosm
1 Introduction
The need for reliable and efficient oil spill cleanup
techniques seems to be inevitable as the demand for
liquid petroleum increases. Bioremediation can be
considered as one of the best alternative as it is, an
effective and economical solution method to remove
crude oil from a contaminated marine environment in
an integrated environmental restoration effort (Philp et
al., 2005). There are two main approaches to oil spill
bioremediation which are bioaugmentation and
biostimulation. Bioaugmentation involves the addition
of oil degrading bacteria to supplement the existing
microbial population. Biostimulation involves the
addition of nutrients, or growth-enhancing co-substrates,
which improve habitat quality to stimulate the growth
of indigenous oil degraders (Lee and Merlin, 1999).
Some biostimulation studies have proved that the
growth of oil-degrading bacteria and oil degradation
can be strongly enhanced by fertilization with
inorganic Nitrogen and Phosphorous (Bragg et al.,
1994; Swannell et al., 1996; Röling et al., 2002). A
previous study on the Indonesian coast showed that
the organic nutrient (Petroganik) stimulates soil
microorganisms in an oil-polluted environment
(Munawar et al., 2007) and Osmocote (slow release
fertilizer) enhanced oil-degradation in Seribu Island
(Darmayati, 2010). To develop bioremediation
techniques for Indonesian coastal areas, a selection of
alternative inexpensive slow release fertilizers made
from local products for the purpose of enhancing oil
degradation has been conducted in the laboratory
(unpublished data).
Bioaugmentation has been considered as a potential
strategy for oil bioremediation since the 1970s,
although hydrocarbon-degrading microorganisms are
also widespread in nature (Zhu et al., 2001). The
efficacy of microorganism addition to oil-polluted
environments is still debatable. Some of them have
