Source: The Herald (Plymouth, England), November 20, 2013
Posted on: http://envfpn.advisen.com
MARINE worms are the latest ally in the battle against oil pollution in the sea.
Plymouth scientists are studying how the burrowing creatures help speed up the breakdown of oil by microbes.
The research is going on at the Marine Biological Association (MBA) as part of a new European consortium, developing novel biotechnological ways of tackling oil spills.
The close links between MBA scientists and oil and technology firms – through the European Union-funded Kill-Spill group – are paying off as the city researchers move towards a ‘green’ solution. One of the partner groups in Messina, Italy, sent polluted sediment samples to the laboratory in Citadel Hill on the Hoe, where the oil-degrading microbes will be analysed to see how they respond to ragworms. The leader of Kill Spill’s MBA research group, Michael Cunliffe, said: “Burrowing marine worms have much the same effect as earthworms do in garden soil. As well as bringing oxygen down into the sediment, worms mix things up and accelerate natural microbial breakdown.”