BG Biogeosciences BG Biogeosciences 1726-4189 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/bg-10-2041-2013 Diversity and abundance of <i>n</i>-alkane-degrading bacteria in the near-surface soils of a Chinese onshore oil and gas field Xu K. 1 2 Tang Y. 2 Ren C. 2 Zhao K. 2 Sun Y. 1 Department of Earth Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China Wuxi Research Institute of Petroleum Geology, Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Production, SINOPEC, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214151, China 25 03 2013 10 3 2041 2048 Copyright: © 2013 K. Xu et al. 2013 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is available from https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/10/2041/2013/bg-10-2041-2013.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/10/2041/2013/bg-10-2041-2013.pdf

Alkane-degrading bacteria have long been used as an important biological indicator for oil and gas prospecting, but their ecological characteristics in hydrocarbon microseep habitats are still poorly understood. In this study, the diversity and abundance of <i>n</i>-alkane-degrading bacterial community in the near-surface soils of a Chinese onshore oil and gas field were investigated using molecular techniques. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analyses in combination with cloning and sequencing of <i>alkB</i> genes revealed that Gram-negative genotypes (<i>Alcanivorax</i> and <i>Acinetobacter</i>) dominated <i>n</i>-alkane-degrading bacterial communities in the near-surface soils of oil and gas reservoirs, while the dominant microbial communities were Gram-positive bacteria (<i>Mycobacterium</i> and <i>Rhodococcus</i>) in background soil. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) results furthermore showed that the abundance of <i>alkB</i> genes increased substantially in the surface soils above oil and gas reservoirs even though only low or undetectable concentrations of hydrocarbons were measured in these soils. The results of this study implicate that trace amounts of volatile hydrocarbons migrate from oil and gas reservoirs, and likely result in the changes of microbial communities in the near-surface soil.

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