Effects of Petroleum Hydrocarbon Contamination on Soil Bacterial Diversity in the Permafrost Region of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with its high elevation and extreme climate, is a transport artery for a crude oil-importation pipeline in China. However, limited information is available regarding the effect of petroleum hydrocarbon (PH) contamination on soil bacterial diversity. Variations in the bacterial structure and composition after PH pollution were investigated by a combination of artificial simulated pollution and high-throughput DNA sequencing. The results demonstrated that the biodiversity of engine oil-contaminated soil samples was higher than that of diesel oil-contaminated soil samples, and 7 genera were identified from indigenous bacteria as potential oil degraders, including Sulfuritalea, Sphingomonas, Alkanindiges, Rhodococcus, Nocardioides, Rhodoplanes, and Actinobacteria_norank. We present a detailed profile of soil bacteria succession under different oil-pollution conditions, which may help in future studies of in-situ bioremediation in this region.