Microbial Consortium Shifts Induced by Oxygen Amendment at Multiple MTBE and Benzene Sites(Abstract)

摘要

A previous study of in-situ stable isotope labeled probes applied at five different MTBE and benzene contaminated sites confirmed that the indigenous microbial commu- nities at these sites actively metabolized the contaminants under both natural and oxygen- enhanced conditions. While the rate of microbial degradation of the contaminants was shown to increase significantly under the oxygen-amended conditions, the particular microorganisms responding to the oxygen amendment could not be discerned from the gross categories of microbial community structures initially quantified using phos- pholipid fatty acids (PLFA) analysis. In this study, the authors examined the existing PLFA dataset in more detail to specifically identify shifts within the microbial popula- tions, assess which microbial populations responded to the oxygen amendment at each site, and explore trends within the microbial consortium from site to site. Several con- sistent consortium shifts were observed in response to oxygen-enhanced conditions. The consistency of consortium shifts in response to the oxygen-enhanced conditions suggests these shifts could be used as a cost effective indicator of enhanced biodegradation performance.