Feed microorganisms oil so they can be full

Bioremediation

 Future plans for past, present and future disasters.

I was given an Oil Spill Bioremediation Kit to investigate that microorganisms can use oil in water as a food source. I thought it was interesting because the first thing that came to mind was "Why isn't this being applied to oil spills that have happened?" However, reading the manual+guide shared information about how the process of bioremediation has been implemented to oil spills, which saves the lives of sea animals, land animals, humans and marine life.Bioremediation is an interesting concept that I was introduced to since it is a way to clean up pollutants.

The question that I was given was, How can bacteria consume oil, and also how can they be beneficial when it came to oil spills?

My hypothesis was, Bacteria helps with oil spills by ingesting some factors or components of the oil, which as a result decreases the mass of oil. 

I learned some terminology that I defined which are the following:

• Bioremendiation refers to the use of living things to clean up environmental pollution. 
• Biodegradation is the breakage of oil over time that turns into simpler, nontoxic products by oil-degrading microbes. 
• Bioaugmentation is the process of supplementing (can be seen as "seeding") a population of naturally occuring, oil-degrading microbes with additional microorganisms. (This technique is used when the existing population of microbes in a contaminated region is not optimally suited to degrade the type of oil present. 
• Microbes are microscopic living organisms. 

 Excerpt from kit guide

 "Scientists recognize great potential in utilizing the oil-degrading properties of microbes to expedite the breakdown of harmful oil from spills."

A venue to the future...

As scientists continue to explore, especially with this process, it could lead to different things to clean up instead of oil. For example, everyday Americans put items in their trash, and that trash can goes to landfills. What if, if there aren't already, bacteria that can eat the trash to reduce pollution and garbage in our environments? Bioremediation is definitely something that I would like to continue to pursue and become more familiar with.