Microbial Degradation of Oil-Contaminated Water by Indigenous Microorganisms: A Review

Oil spills have caused major concern over their major threat on many different ecosystems. After initial efforts to curb the spread of pollution by chemical and physical techniques, bioremediation as an attempt to combat this pollution is the best and cheapest. Bioremediation features a great strategy on removal of oil spills through application of bioaugmentation and biostimulation as two complementary methodologies. Briefly, bioaugmentation works through application of oil degrading indigenous microorganisms and biostimulation works by stimulation of the growth of indigenous hydrocarbon degraders through addition of specific nutrients (mainly N&P) or other growth-limiting nutrients. In this report, we compared the effectiveness of strategies; autochthonous bioaugmentation and biostimulation in successful remediation of polluted marine environments. The results obtained from various literatures showed a significantly increased biodegradation of crude oil using local microbial consortiums.