Abstract
Oil spilled in the Arctic may drift into ice-covered areas and become trapped until the ice melts. To determine if
exposure to oil during freezing may have a priming effect on degradation of the oil, weathered dispersed oil (2-3
mg/L) was frozen into solid ice for 200 days at -10 ◦C, then melted and incubated for 64 days at 4 ◦C.
No degradation was measured in oil frozen into ice prior to melting. Both total amount of oil and target
compounds were biotransformed by the microbial community from the melted ice. However, oil released from
melted ice was degraded at a slower rate than oil incubated in fresh seawater at the same temperature (4 ◦C), and
by a different microbial community. These data suggest negligible biodegradation of oil frozen in sea ice, while
oil-degrading bacteria surviving in the ice may contribute to biodegradation when the ice melts.
exposure to oil during freezing may have a priming effect on degradation of the oil, weathered dispersed oil (2-3
mg/L) was frozen into solid ice for 200 days at -10 ◦C, then melted and incubated for 64 days at 4 ◦C.
No degradation was measured in oil frozen into ice prior to melting. Both total amount of oil and target
compounds were biotransformed by the microbial community from the melted ice. However, oil released from
melted ice was degraded at a slower rate than oil incubated in fresh seawater at the same temperature (4 ◦C), and
by a different microbial community. These data suggest negligible biodegradation of oil frozen in sea ice, while
oil-degrading bacteria surviving in the ice may contribute to biodegradation when the ice melts.
