This Special Issue, published 15 years after the monumental volume “The Carpathians and their foreland: Geology hydrocarbon resources” [...]

an aquifer located within a petroleum processing plant in moín, costa rica, suffers hydrocarbon pollution. this study aimed to determine the ability of indigenous microorganisms from this site to degrade polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pahs) to evaluate the feasibility of an eventual bioremediation process. aerobic conditions were found in the aquifer, while microbial analyses of the groundw...

Traditionally, hydrocarbon-impacted soils at E&P sites have been managed based on their total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) content. Oil and gas industry guidance on TPH clean-up concentrations at E&P sites was not based upon risk to human health; rather, it was based on the protection of plants and water resources [API, 1993; Currier and Peoples, 1954; Udo, et al., 1975; Baker, 1970; deOng, et a...

Resource-ratio theory is one of the major logical frameworks used in ecology to predict how competition for growth-limiting resources influences biological diversity and function within a biological community. This paper presents experimental and other evidence that resourceratio theory can also be applied to nutrient supplementation in hydrocarbon biodegradation. The theory makes two major pre...

The evolution of political regimes of resource-rich countries is a highly relevant topic as the debates continue about the likelihood of those countries to democratize. Conventional wisdom dictates that large oil endowment impedes democratic development. However, recent studies found that oil and gas can both contribute to and undermine democracy. At the same time, the subject of how and why a ...

The rapid rise of shale gas development through horizontal drilling and high volume hydraulic fracturing has expanded the extraction of hydrocarbon resources in the U.S. The rise of shale gas development has triggered an intense public debate regarding the potential environmental and human health effects from hydraulic fracturing. This paper provides a critical review of the potential risks tha...