Comparative evaluation of microbial and chemical methods for assessing 4-chlorophenol biodegradation in soil

Abstract

Reliable methods for assessing soil microflora and it’s activity are a prerequisite for successful technology planning and sustainable bioremediation of contaminated sites. The main objectives were to evaluate several microbiological soil-testing methods for characterizing the 4-chlorophenol biodegradation in the soil microcosm and to find the most appropriate methodology for testing biodegradation potential. The activity of the soil microflora were characterized by contaminant degrading cell concentration, dehydrogenase enzyme activity, three types of soil respiration and substrate utilization of the microbial community. The contaminant concentrations were measured by exhaustive extraction and by non-exhaustive cyclodextrin extraction. Most of the applied biological methods were found to be reliable indicators of chlorophenol biodegradation in soil, and can be useful as a pre-implementation methodology to support technology selection and design. The microbial community analyses by BIOLOG EcoPlateTM provided very good results and can be suitable for use in biodegradation assessment and evaluation in soil.