A team of Argentine scientists is using microorganisms native to Antarctica to clean up fuel and potentially plastic pollution from the pristine stretches of the white continent.
The microbes chew through the waste, creating a natural cleanup system for the pollution caused by diesel that is used as a source of electricity and heat for research bases in Antarctica.
The continent is protected by the Madrid Protocol of 1961, which stipulates that it must be kept “in a pure state”.
Research into how microbes can help with plastic waste could have potential for broader environmental issues.
“This work uses the potential of native microorganisms – bacteria and fungi that inhabit the Antarctic soil, even when contaminated – and make these microorganisms eat the hydrocarbons”, said biochemist Lucas Ruberto.
“What for us is a contaminant, for them can be a food”, he added.
Ruberto traveled in December with other researchers to Carlini, one of six permanent Argentine bases in Antarctica, undergoing a quarantine to avoid bringing Covid-19 to the continent, where there have already been isolated outbreaks of the virus.
The team carried out bioremediation work, which involves cleaning the soil affected by diesel using microorganisms and autochthonous plants, a process that can be used in the southern summer and removes about 60% to 80% of the contaminants.
Ruberto said the team helped the microbes with nitrogen, moisture and aeration to optimize conditions.
“Basically, with this we get the microorganisms to biologically reduce, with very low environmental impact, the level of contaminants,” he told Reuters via Zoom.
The team has now begun researching how microbes can help clean up plastic waste elsewhere. Both fuels and plastics are polymers, molecules composed of long chains of carbon and hydrogen.
The researchers collect samples of plastic from the seas off Antarctica and study to see if microorganisms are eating the plastics or simply using them as rafts.
Source: CNN Brasil
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