Abundance and diversity of hydrocarbon utilizing bacteria in the oil-contaminated soils throughout a remedial scheme using compost amendment

Abstract

Since hydrocarbon utilizing bacteria (HUB) play a role in the biodegradation of hydrocarbons in oil-contaminated soil, the abundance and diversity of HUB over the course of soil remediation is indicative of the hydrocarbon bioremediation performance. This research experimented with uncontaminated soil, 5% (w/w) oil-contaminated soil (with no compost amendment), and 5% (w/w) oil-contaminated soil amended with chicken manure compost. The entire experiment lasted 84 days. The findings indicated that the introduction of chicken manure compost into the soils increased the abundance and diversity of the bacterial communities and thereby the biodegradation performance. The higher numbers of microbes in the compost-amended soil relative to the non-amended soils could be attributed to the nutrients in the compost, which promoted the bacterial growth. The experimental results are expected to provide useful insights for further study and the application of poultry waste to the bioremediation of petroleum-contaminated soils.

Keywords

• hydrocarbon utilizing bacteria
• PCR-DGGE
• contaminated soil
• used lubricating oil