Diversity in Microbial Carbon Metabolism of the Oil Shale at the Western Open Group in Fushun Basin

The oil shale in the Western Fushun Basin as research object was investigated by Biolog-ECO to explore the functional diversity in microbial carbon metabolism of the oil shale. The process of Biolog-ECO was that, first determining the microbial community level physiological patterns during the 7 consecutive days by ECO microplate, then analyzing the differences in microbial metabolism of different types of carbon. The results showed that there were significant differences of the rate and extent in different types of carbon metabolism. The metabolism of carbohydrates, amino acids and amines carbon were significantly better than other carbon sources in all microbial communities, while the metabolism of acid metabolite was poor. Through continuous multi-point measuring the diversity index of Shannon-wiener, Simpson and McIntosh, overall, the microbial diversity was good, but with the time passing, the functional diversity of the carbon metabolism decreased.