[Microbial Community Distributions in Soils of an Oil Exploitation Site]

To design a reasonable and effective remediation scheme for soil in contaminated sites, it is necessary to understand the microbial communities in the soil. Samples were collected at different depths (0 cm to 400 cm) in four locations: one that was persistently contaminated and near an oil well, one that was historically contaminated in the middle of the site, one in a mud pit, and one in farmland. High-throughput sequencing of the V4 region of 16S rRNA in these samples was performed. In addition to physico-chemical properties of the soil, the α-diversity, species composition, and differences in species between groups of microorganisms were analyzed, and a principal coordinate analysis and canonical correlation analysis were conducted. Results showed that oil and salt contents in soils were the dominant factors affecting microbial community structure. Hydrocarbon-degrading microorganisms were abundant in oil-contaminated soils, whereas halophilic hydrocarbon-degrading microorganisms were present in soils with high salt contents. Therefore, hydrocarbon-degrading microorganisms might be useful in remediation of oil-contaminated sites.