Biodegradation of the low concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in soil by microbial consortium during incubation
Introduction
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are an important class of environmental contaminants because some of them are toxic, mutagenic and resist biodegradation [1]. Possible fates of PAHs released into the environment include volatilization, photo-oxidation, chemical oxidation, bioaccumulation, and adsorption on soil particles [2]. Soil clean-up may be accomplished using different remediation technologies. Among these, bioremediation is an effective and low-cost alternative that has garnered widespread use [3].
Two processes have been found to increase the activity of microorganisms during bioremediation: biostimulation and bioaugmentation. Biostimulation involves the addition of nutrients and/or a terminal electron acceptor to increase the scant activity of indigenous microbial populations. Bioaugmentation involves the addition of external microbial strains (indigenous or exogenous) which have the ability to degrade the target toxic molecules [4]. The added specific PAHs degrader, which has a competitive capacity to become dominant species with indigenous microbial strains or grow simultaneously with indigenous microbial strains, may greatly increase the rate of PAHs biodegradation [5], [6]. Numerous studies have focused on this latter process of biodegradation and have reported some useful species of microorganisms including bacteria (Mycobacterium sp., Pseudomonas sp., and Sphingomonas sp.) [7], [8], [9] and fungi (Chrysosporium P., Bjerkandera adusta, Irpex lacteus, Agrocybe sp. CU-43, and Lentinus tigrinus) [10], [11], [12]. Uyttebroek et al. [13] reported that the combined action of an introduced enriched consortium and indigenous microorganisms could degrade fluoranthene and phenanthrene to a greater extent than either of them alone. Hamdi et al. [14] found that adding aged PAH-contaminated soil containing activated indigenous degraders produced higher PAH dissipation rates than those observed in un-amended PAH-spiked soils (3000 mg PAHs kg−1 dry soil), especially for anthrance and pyrene (>96%).
However, the application of bioaugmentation with microbial consortium is comparatively less studied in the long-term contaminated soils with low PAH concentration (i.e., total 16 EPA-PAH concentration below 10 mg PAHs kg−1 [15], [16]). Consequently the aims of this study are to (1) evaluate the ability of previously isolated strains of bacteria and fungi to degrade PAHs in aged contaminated soil with low PAH concentration; (2) identify the changes of the numbers of bacteria and fungi in aged contaminated soil during biodegradation.
Section snippets
Soil
Soil samples were collected from the surface layer (0–20 cm) in Shenfu Irrigation Area (41°50′30″N, 123°44′7″E), Liaoning Province, China, which had been contaminated for more than 50 years due to the irrigation with oil–sewage water. The soil had the following physico-chemical characteristics: pH 6.25, organic matter 5.18%, sand 61.42%, silt 28.53%, clay 10.04%, water holding capacity 48%, and contained approximately 8.15 mg PAHs (16 EPA-PAHs) kg−1 soil (Table 1). Soil samples were air dried in
PAH biodegradation in soil
The concentrations of PAHs in aged PAH-contaminated soils during biodegradation were presented in Fig. 1. The initial PAH concentration (8.33 mg kg−1) in sterile soil was higher than that in non-sterile soil (8.15 mg kg−1) in this study. In contrast, the study of Mueller and Shann [22] found that there were no significant differences in total PAH concentration before and after sterilization in soil. After inoculation, PAHs were rapidly degraded from soils of three treatments in the first 8 d, in
Discussion
Although some species of microorganisms able to enhance PAH degradation in soils have been well documented [9], [10], [28], a few successful examples in field-scale bioaugmentation was reported, because of the catabolic properties and survival ability of introduced microorganisms in the target environment [29]. In this study, the microbial consortium isolated from aged PAH-contaminated soil was used to evaluate the bioaugmentation efficiency of introduced microorganisms in the long-term
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by funds provided by State Key Lab of Urban Water Resources and Environment (HIT) (ES200801), Innovative Program of The Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX2-YW-446), National Basic Research Program of China (2004CB854106).
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