A possible CO2 leakage event: Can the marine microbial community be recovered?

Bacterial communities have been studied to a much lesser degree than macrofauna in the case of a CO2 release. The resistance capacity of marine bacteria is well known, but their possible responses and their ability to recover after a CO2 release has not been investigated. Therefore, this work evaluated the responses of a marine bacterial community after 96 h of CO2 exposure under diverse pH treatments (7.8 as control without CO2, 7.0, 6.5, and 6.0) and 24 h after CO2 exposure. Results showed that the respiration activity and the diversity of the community were affected in all pH treatments. However, after 24 h without CO2 enrichment, the respiration activity and diversity increased, showing a partial recovery. Consequently, bacterial responses have the potential to be used as a monitoring tool for risk assessment related to carbon capture and storage techniques or in any similar CO2 enrichment situations.