Study of Microbial Community of Hydrocarbon Impacted Sites of Bodo Oilfield, Ogoniland Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

Hydrocarbon pollution has greatly altered the normal microbial flora of our environments; this has led to the succession of hydrocarbonoclastic microbes in oil impacted sites. This study is a comparative study of the microbial flora of hydrocarbon impacted site of Bodo oilfield and the non-impacted site in Ogoniland. A total of 12 samples were collected, 6 from the oil impacted site, and 6 from the non-impacted site. The sample were coded A –F. The physicochemical parameter of soil was determined, the microbiological examination was conducted to determine the bacterial and fungal communities present at each site. The result shows that higher population of oil-degrading microorganisms were found on the hydrocarbon impacted site, prominent among them were Micrococcus, Acinetobacter, Corynebacterium, Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Flavobacterium, Actinomycetes, fungi isolated from impacted sites includes Candida, Rhizopus mucor and Aspergillus, while the non-impacted site has: streptococcus, staphylococcus, E.coli, and Actinomycetes species. There were also fungal isolate of which only Candida was the only isolate. A microbial growth ranges between  1.1 x 10³ to 9.1 x 10³ CFU/ml.