Paper No. 45-0
SIMULTANEOUS BIODEGRADATION OF NITROBENZENE AND NITRATE BY NATURALLY OCCURING MICROBES IN WETLAND SOILS
AGRAWAL, Abinash1, BOSE, Sweta1, and SHELLEY, Mike2, (1) Geological Sciences, Wright State Univ, 261 Brehm Lab, 3640 Colonel Glenn Highway, Dayton, OH 45435, abinash.agrawal@wright.edu, (2) Systems and Engineering Management, Air Force Institute of Technology, Graduate School of Engineering, AFIT/ENV, 2950 P Street, Wright-Patt AFB, OH 45433

The ability of the naturally occurring microbes to reduce nitro group (in nitrobenzene or NB) to aniline under various electron-accepting, (anaerobic) conditions is investigated at bench scale by using enrichment cultures obtained from a shallow soil core collected from a local wetland. Laboratory studies reveal that, after acclimation, the indigenous soil microbes are able to degrade nitrate, and sulfate readily. NB degrades relatively easily under nitrate reducing conditions, and it appears to be affected by the ambient level of nitrate. The addition of yeast extract—the source of carbon, enhances the degradation potential of nitrate, sulfate and nitrobenzene, the other conditions remaining the same. The main focus of this investigation is to study if nitrobenzene and nitrate reduction processes compete with each other as electron acceptors, and if one enhances the degradation of the other, if both are simultaneously present. The degradation potential of NB under sulfate-reducing condition using the wetland soil is also under investigation.

North-Central Section (36th) and Southeastern Section (51st), GSA Joint Annual Meeting (April 3–5, 2002)
Session No. 45
Wetlands Hydrology and Biogeochemistry I
Hyatt Regency Hotel: Patterson Ballroom B
8:20 AM-12:00 PM, Friday, April 5, 2002
 

© Copyright 2002 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.