In-Situ Bioremediation of DDTs and PAH Contaminated Aging Farmland Soil Using Blood Meal

ABSTRACT

The use of blood meal was studied for in-site bioremediation of contaminated farmland soil. The combination of blood meal and indigenous microorganisms helped to in-site remediate the combined contaminated aging farmland soil of DDTs and PAH in Shenyang, China. The concentration of DDTs and PAHs was 47.94 ± 0.63 μg/kg and 690.10 ± 5.16 μg/kg, respectively. Biostimulation using blood meal or glucose promoted the bioremediation rate of DDTs and PAHs. Compared to glucose, blood meal was a longer term repair additive of DDTs and PAHs, and the remediation result was more efficient and durable. In the blood meal treatment, plowing the soil once every 7 days could increase the soil enzyme activities and bacterial populations, and it could significantly promote the remediation rates of DDTs (P < 0.05) and more evidently promote the remediation rates of PAHs. The DDTs and PAHs remediation rates increased from 32.18% and 20.17% to 43.41% and 26.09%, respectively, in soil treated with blood meal and plowed weekly after the five month remediation. This study provides an highly efficient in-site farmland soil bioremediation technology that could have practical utility.

KEYWORDS:

• DDTs
• PAHs
• blood meal
• biostimulation
• aged contaminated farmland soil
• field test

Acknowledgments

This study was financially supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (2014CB441100), science and enterprise competitive selection project of Shenyang City (Study on the risk management and remediation technology of urban ecological environment), Liaoning province science and technology plan(20170540656), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41401352). The authors thank the staff of Shenyang University Laboratory of Eco-Remediation and Resource Reuse for their support during field sampling, logistics and laboratory analysis.

Author contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: Hui Wang and Lina Sun. Performed the experiments: Hui Wang, Yinggang Wang, Xiaoxu Wang and Hao Wu. Analyzed the data: Hui Wang, Luge Rong and Chunyue Liu. Wrote the paper: Hui Wang and Qing Luo.

Additional information

Competing financial interests: The authors declare no competing financial interests.