Microscopic bacteria helped rapidly disolve the oil spilt during the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Researchers from the Dauphin Island Sea Laboratory in Alabama, had been commissioned to investigate after the oil disappeared from the waters of the Gulf faster than had been expected.
It turns out that Mother Nature leant a large helping hand with the microscopic bacteria, measuring no more than a micron, digesting much of the 200 million gallons of oil estimated to have flowed from the Macondo Well before it was capped.
The bacteria themselves were eaten by larger organisms called nanoflagellates and so-on up the food chain. The researchers studied zooplankton, which are large enough to be eaten by a wide variety of sea life including whales. By measuring carbon atoms in these plankton, the scientists discovered that they had eaten smaller organisms that had digested the oil.
Further research is now underway to discover whether the zooplankton actually increased during the spill or whether phytoplankton growth decreased to offset zooplankton numbers.