Changes of sensitive microbial community in oil polluted soil in the coastal area in Shandong, China for ecorestoration

Oil spills have an important threat to the ecological security and human health, for example the important oil field and coastal wetland Yellow River Delta is facing the dual problems of oil pollution and salinization. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze the changes of soil microbial community and physicochemical properties, including pH value, total organic carbon (TOC), total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) and electrical conductivity under the combined effect of petroleum and salinization. The soil properties results showed that the petroleum addition promoted the increase of TOC from 2.31 +/- 0.59 mg/kg to 7.04 +/- 0.42 mg/kg (r > 0.95, P < 0.1, R-2 > 0.9), TPHs from 9.18 +/- 0.07 mg/kg to 33.09 +/- 4.61 mg/kg (r > 0.9, P < 0.05, R-2 > 0.9) significantly. At the initial stage hydrocarbons caused the increase of soil salt content and the decrease of pH. Salt addition increased soil salt from 2.46 +/- 0.13 g/kg to 15.12 +/- 0.21 g/kg (r > 0.8, P > 0.1, R-2 > 0.95), but it had no direct effect on other soil properties. It was found that the nitrate reducing bacteria Halorhodospiraceae with potential petroleum degradation ability and the anaerobic bacteria Lactobacilliceae appeared after adding crude oil. The salt tolerant bacteria Halobacilli and the stone oil degrading bacteria Immundisolidcharacter appeared in the high salt and low salt environments respectively. The aerobic bacteria Acidimicrobiaceae, Hyphomonas and the nonoil efficient Peptoccaceae disappeared in the process of salinization and oil pollution. Lactobacilliceae can ferment carbohydrate, fatty acid or ester to produce lactic acid, acetic acid and fumaric acid to provide metabolic substrate for other microorganisms. The above results showed that sensitive microorganisms were easy to be affected by pollution to indicate soil conditions, while tolerant microorganisms could potentially use oil to achieve bioremediation. The soil properties and microbial results provided data support and theoretical basis for further understanding the pollution mechanism of oil and salinization combined stress on soil.