1. Do phosphorus amendments enhance biodegradation activity in stalled petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated soil?
- Author
-
Schryer AD and Siciliano SD
- Subjects
- Soil Microbiology, Hydrocarbons metabolism, Saskatchewan, Fertilizers analysis, Biodegradation, Environmental, Soil Pollutants metabolism, Soil Pollutants analysis, Soil chemistry, Phosphorus metabolism, Phosphorus analysis, Petroleum metabolism, Petroleum analysis
- Abstract
Phosphorus (P) fertilizers promote soil petroleum-hydrocarbon (PHC) bioremediation by correcting carbon-to-P ratio imbalances. While these inputs create conditions favorable to microbial growth, areas of a site or an entire site with low degradation rates (i.e., "stalled") occur for unknown reasons. We hypothesized that soil conditions limit P bioavailability, leading to stalls in PHC bioremediation, and adding the correct P amendment restarts microbial activity. Soils were collected and characterized from four cold calcareous PHC-impacted sites in Saskatchewan, Canada, undergoing bioremediation. A generalized linear mixed model identified that regions with lower degradation rates possessed a neutral pH with high magnetic and salinity values. In a subsequent laboratory experiment, the proportion of benzene degraded at greater rates within active (i.e., higher degradation rates) than stalled soils, thereby following model predictions (p-value = 0.19, Kruskal-Wallis). The PHC degradation efficiency of different P amendments was tested by doping stalled soils (n = 3) with one of five treatments: 0 (control), 0 (autoclaved control), or 50 mg phosphate kg
-1 soil as sodium diphosphate, triethyl phosphate, or tripolyphosphate. Tripolyphosphate accelerated benzene degradation (75.5 ± 5.4%) in one stalled soil (Outlook 323) and increased degradation non-significantly (43.9 ± 9.4%) in another (Allan 917). Alternatively, the final sample (Davidson 421) possessed the greatest benzene removal with no amendments. This implies that soil P bioavailability may not be the sole cause of decreased microbial activity. Accordingly, combining model outputs with mineralogy and microbiology investigations could enhance PHC biodegradation rates in these cold calcareous soils., (© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Environmental Quality © 2024 American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.)- Published
- 2024
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