Microbiomes of Oil and Gas Wells in Wyoming
Abstract
Produced water, or the water brought to the surface during oil and gas production, also brings to the surface microbes present in the deep subsurface. Given the salinity of these waters, it is not surprising that the microbes identified by Illumina MiSeq 16S rDNA sequencing are halophilic thermophiles, many of which have been identified in various other saline or marine environments. DNA was analyzed from 6 wells in the Powder River Basin, 8 wells in the Green River Basin, and 6 wells in the Wind River Basin. Among the analyzed wells, well depths range from 7,000ft to 15,000ft deep. Microbial DNA isolated from the Powder River Basin wells was enriched with Thermovirga, Anaerobaculum, and Desulfomicrobium, while Thermoanaerobacter, Pseudomonas, and Planococcus were enriched in samples collected from the Green River Basin wells. Microbiomes of wells in the Wind River Basin varied more, but Marinobacterium, Pseudomonas, Acetobacterium, and Brevundimonas. Ongoing work includes correlating microbial populations with salinity and availability of nutrients to better understand how microbial communities exist in these exotic environmental conditions.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.B43H2951W
- Keywords:
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- 0448 Geomicrobiology;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 0456 Life in extreme environments;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 0465 Microbiology: ecology;
- physiology and genomics;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES