Integration of Satellite Imagery and Metagenomics to Improve Water Quality Assessment

The planetary crisis regarding water resources means that new methods are needed to monitor large areas of water basins that are threatened by chemical and natural pollutants, together with climate change. With the aim to monitor the pollution status of some Sites of National Interest (SIN) which represent very large contaminated Italian areas classified as dangerous, we are applying new or already well established algorithms to optical satellite images. In particular, a recently introduced oil spill detection algorithm [1] was able to, consistently and reliably, confirm the presence of oil in five polluted lake waters analysed. The combination of this algorithm with metagenomic analysis of the spill areas detected by the satellite allowed to identify drivers of the microbial response to oil pollution. Based on ortholog abundances, metabolic pathway reconstruction carried out in Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt2) software highlighted the degradative capacity of these microorganisms. These microorganisms could be suitable candidates for treatment of crude oil, aromatic hydrocarbons and the desulfurization of persistent petroleum substances like dibenzothiophene. Building upon this recent algorithmic development, the SatellOmic project funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) focuses on the pre-operational application of such integrated approach combining satellite sensing and metagenomics analyses for real-time monitoring of water bodies threatened by oil spills, as well as for the design of recovery strategies based on the use of valuable hydrocarbonoclastic microorganisms.