title: Remediation of petroleum contaminated soils by joint action of Pharbitis nil L. and its microbial community.
abstract: The plot-culture experiments were conducted for examining the feasibility of Pharbitis nil L. and its microbial community to remedy petroleum contaminated soils. The petroleum contaminated soil, containing 10% (w/w) of the total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs), was collected from the Shengli Oil Field, Dongying City, Shandong Province, China. The collected soil was applied and diluted to a series of petroleum contaminated soils (0.5%, 1.0%, 2.0% and 4.0%). Root length, microbial populations and numbers in the rhizosphere were also measured in this work. The results showed that there was significantly (p<0.05) greater degradation rate of TPHs in vegetated treatments, up to 27.63-67.42%, compared with the unvegetated controls (only 10.20-35.61%), after a 127-day incubation. Although various fractions of TPHs had an insignificant concentration difference due to the presence of the remediation plants, there was a much higher removal of saturated hydrocarbon compared with other components. The biomass of P. nil L. did not decrease significantly when the concentration of petroleum hydrocarbons in soil was ≤2.0%. The trends of microbial populations and numbers in the rhizosphere were similar to the biomass changes, with the exception that fungi at 0.5% petroleum contaminated soil had the largest microbial populations and numbers.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria (Ministry of Education), College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, PR China.
authors.forename: Zhineng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Qixing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Shengwei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Zhang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cai
mesh_terms: D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D018533:Biomass; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D006838:Hydrocarbons / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D049915:Ipomoea nil / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000382:microbiology; D010578:Petroleum / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D006838:Hydrocarbons; D010578:Petroleum; D012989:Soil Pollutants