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Plant enhancement of indigenous soil micro-organisms: a low-cost treatment of contaminated soils

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

C. M. Reynolds ,
D. C. Wolf ,
T. J. Gentry ,
L. B. Perry ,
C. S. Pidgeon ,
B. A. Koenen ,
H. B. Rogers  and
C. A. Beyrouty
C. M. Reynolds
Affiliation:
US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, 72 Lyme Road, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
D. C. Wolf
Affiliation:
Department of Agronomy, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA
T. J. Gentry
Affiliation:
Department of Agronomy, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA
L. B. Perry
Affiliation:
US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, 72 Lyme Road, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
C. S. Pidgeon
Affiliation:
US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, 72 Lyme Road, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
B. A. Koenen
Affiliation:
US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Alaska Projects Office, PO Box 35170, Fort Wainwright, AK 99703, USA
H. B. Rogers
Affiliation:
Department of Agronomy, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA
C. A. Beyrouty
Affiliation:
Department of Agronomy, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA
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Abstract

The United States has more than 1000 individual areas of petroleum-contaminated soil at formerly used defense (FUD) sites located in cold regions. This paper investigates biotreatment systems based on exploiting naturally occurring phenomena in the rhizosphere — the soil adjacent to and influenced by plant roots. Rhizosphere-based remediation systems would be inexpensive to implement and maintain and would be applicable to remote or permafrost sites. Herein, this paper provides the rationale for using rhizosphere-based biotreatment systems and some initial results. In both laboratory and field studies, successful plant germination, plant growth, and root intrusion into and through contaminated soil are demonstrated.

Using a Captina silt loam in a 10-week laboratory study, the effects of vegetation and contamination on microbial numbers were compared. The vegetation treatments included an unvegetated control and a vegetated treatment seeded with bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum). The contamination treatments included an uncontaminated control and a treatment with 2000 mg pyrene kg-1 soil added. Microbial numbers at 10 weeks were not significantly influenced by the contaminant level of 2000 mg pyrene kg-1 soil compared to the control. However, microbial numbers were greater in the rhizosphere of the bahiagrass-vegetated soil compared to the unvegetated soil.

In a 34-week field study, total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) concentrations of a diesel-contaminated soil decreased significantly more in the rhizosphere+nutrient treatment compared to the control that was not vegetated or fertilized. Bacterial numbers in the field study were 287 times greater in the rhizosphere+nutrient treated soils than in the control treatments. Measurable TPH compounds in the plant tissue were insignificant. The data demonstrated that rhizosphereenhanced treatment of organic-contaminated soils can be effective in reducing soil petroleum concentrations and may be a cost-effective strategy particularly suited for treating cold-region sites where remediation options are limited by cost, remoteness of the site, and/or brevity of the treatment season.

Type
Articles
Information
Polar Record , Volume 35 , Issue 192 , January 1999 , pp. 33 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1999

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