Microbial Ecosystem Redesign as a Result of Fracking (Where does it all go?)

Into the China Shop

Upon reviewing Daly’s 2016 article in microbiology (Rebecca A. Daly, 2016) and many of the supporting contemporaries, it is easy to start developing the clichéd image of a bull in a china shop. Only in this case, the bull has been blindfolded, electrically prodded, and purposely released into the shop, with the hope that it will successfully bring back the prettiest pattern. This is not to imply that there is no predictability in hydraulic fracking, in fact, there is a great deal of prediction that happens. To take this metaphor a bit farther, it is known where the china shop is and the bull is miraculously able to bring back a remarkable pattern, but given the wreckage and undesirable materials that result from this process, it becomes necessary to ask: Is this the best process and is this process being strategically implemented?

A Unique Ecology

           That which is not seen and even less understood is often easily ignored, especially when what is visible (the plants, the animals, even algae) presents itself with such a tangible impact. This is a potentially dangerous approach to strategic decision-making since the microbial world is thought to have caused two significant epochs that have allowed for the visible life that can now be appreciated. The Great Oxygenation Event (GOE) around the Archean-Proterozoic boundary, is thought to have happened over 3.8 billion years ago. Epoch one gave recognizable life a good kick-off, and the Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event (NOE), some 800 million years ago, allowed oxygen to accumulate and ventilate the deep oceans. Epoch two allowed for the incredible diversification of life that allowed the world of now to exist. (Lawrence M. Och, 2012). Understanding that currently 50% of the world's oxygen is produced by that same microbiome (Maier, 2015) is important. The world that exists now, including both the living world and the chemical, is changed and redesigned by the existing microbiome. As billions of years of evidence show, altering the chemical makeup of the earth has far-reaching effects. 

           All of the microbiological effects that happened about 7 million years ago could only be measured and looked at when examining them on the geologic scale. An accelerant to the development of microbial effects, however, has been found. “Since the beginning of the industrial age nitrous oxide (N2O) has increased by 18%, carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil fuel combustion by 39%, and methane (CH4) up to 148%” (Friedlingstein P, 2006). The connections between the visible and microbial worlds are undeniable, “a prominent example will be the exchange of carbon between autotrophs and heterotrophs within and between various ecosystems by way of atmospheric carbon dioxide (See fig1).

It is the CO2 which is considered as the building block that autotrophs use to build multi-carbon, high-energy compounds, such as glucose.

Among various autotrophs, like the plants, photosynthetic bacteria, algae, lithotrophs, and some methanogens, uses CO2 as the sole source of carbon for growth.” Greenhouse gasses, which are created, balanced, and largely maintained, by the microbiome are pivotal to the way life exists as it does on the planet (SAHA, 2014). The mineral and chemical reshuffling that the world has recently experienced due to industrialization can be readily seen. It is not the purpose of this paper, however, to discuss the possible sum and total of all the changes to the microbial ecologies but to focus on the microbial differences described in Daly’s paper.

What is the Bull?

Hydraulic fracturing is the process industry uses to extract hydrocarbons (fuel) from shale. This involves the sending, at high pressure, of a slurry of water, solids, and chemicals through the strata of the earth to pound (drill) for natural gas (methane). The large-scale environmental effects of accidental contamination of water supplies, the incidental release of methane into the atmosphere, even the earthquakes generated by fluid dispersion sites, have been greatly discussed and researched.  (Meng, 2014) (Jaspal, 2014) (A. McGarr, 2015) (Ellsworth, 2013) (Daniel Soeder, 2009). The effects that fracking has on the microbial communities have only recently begun to be looked at and, perhaps understandably, while they may potentially be considered the most startling for long-term mining prospects and environmental impact, the ecologies of the microbiome do not seem to grab the headlines in the same way.

A healthy microbiome at a shale site has three orders of magnitude higher biodiversity than the biogenically-depleted site that develops a short time after fracking occurs (See fig 2). 

 Considering the idea that a healthy microbiome is one of the main factors in combating global warming; For instance a chief carbon dioxide sink can be found in bacteria such as Methylobacillus there are also many methane consumers (important since methane is a greenhouse gas that is over seven times to fifteen times more problematic as CO2); the current practices of mining seems even more questionable.

Setting aside documented environmental concerns, the strategic economics of the usability and endurance of the wells is in question. Mining companies would benefit from prolonged well use to keep costs low and profits higher. 

The current system for instance of recycling heavily contaminated fluid and not cleaning it before fracking lacks strategy and poses problems for mining. Through the current use of fracking fluid, Daly shows how halotolerant microbial communities are encouraged and enriched as they are forced out of their normal ecosystem and into key points in the newly fractured environment. (See fig 3). 

Part of the reason organisms that cause salinity multiply and promote further salinity increase is the use of recycled fracking fluid. As flow-back that comes from the newly-fracked site cycles into the fracking fluid many organisms are washed into the fluid. These organisms are now part of the fluid.  During drilling, the organisms are deposited in the crevasses (Maryam A. Cluff, 2014) (See figure 4) for many of them these new homes are an ideal climate to grow and use fermentation.  Encouraging the fermentation and sulfide production of organisms in shale seems to be counter-intuitive, as souring the well only encourages the corrosive abilities and effects of various bacteria.  

Is The Blindfold Necessary?

           Assuming that the mining of natural gas is essential strategic planning and development of a functioning practice is essential. First understanding the current level of knowledge is important, the current understanding of the microbiome is limited (300,000-1,000,000 bacterial species exist, and only 5000 have been identified) (Madsen, 1998). Despite having only a small snapshot of a larger ecosystem there is still the evidence that there is a decent understanding of many of the microbiome connections. The question is then, why isn't that knowledge being taken advantage of in a meaningful way? A blind disruption of an ecosystem does not serve any purpose and, in fact, has been shown to be disruptive to all desired results. (Meng, 2014) (Jaspal, 2014) (A. McGarr, 2015) (Ellsworth, 2013) (Daniel Soeder, 2009).   Developing a strategy of resource development that works better in conjunction with an ecosystem takes time to be sure, but when the results are the use of the entire china store or just a few patterns in it, reasonable and inexpensive resource use seem fairly academic. It should work better to function within the constraints of the natural environment instead of blindly running rampant through it.

References

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Arvind Murali Mohan, A. H. (2014). Microbial Community Changes in Hydraulic Fracturing Fluids and Produced Water from Shale Gas Extraction. Environmental Science & Technology, 13141?13150.

Daniel Soeder, W. K. (2009). Water Resources and Natural Gas Production from the Marcellus Shale. Reston: USGS.

Daly Rebecca A., M. A. (2016, September 5). Microbial metabolisms in a 2.5-km-deep ecosystem created by hydraulic fracturing in shales. Nature Microbiology.

Ellsworth, W. (2013, July 12). Injection-Induced Earthquakes. Science, p. VOL 381.

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Maier, R. (2015). What about Earth’s Microbiome? Scientific American.

Maryam A. Cluff, A. H. (2014). Temporal Changes in Microbial Ecology and Geochemistry in Produced Water from Hydraulically Fractured Marcellus Shales. Environmental Science and Technology, 6508?6517.

Meng, Q. (2014). Modeling and prediction of natural gas fracking pad land scapes in theMarcellusShaleregion, USA. Landscape and Urban Planning, 109–116.

SAHA, A. (2014). Role of micro-organisms in climate change. Dublin: UCD Dublin.