Oil spills

The effects of oil spills on the marine environment is being studied in collaboration with the Marine Biology group and the Physical Oceanography Research Laboratory.

A technique, which encourages the growth of resident bacteria through fertilisation for the clearing of oil spills, was developed in temperate zones but there has been little experience of using such systems in tropical waters.  Nutrient enrichment field and laboratory experiments on oil-seawater have been carried out to study the effects of nutrients fertilisation of oily beaches and, measure Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) dehydrogenase activity and microbial counts.

Our objective is to measure the biodegradation of,

• oil on natural beaches in the presence of & without added nutrients and,
• under controlled laboratory conditions subjected to nutrient enrichment, or special hydrocarbon-degrading microbes