Technology Transfer of Biopolymer Soil Amendment for Rapid Revegetation and Erosion Control at Fort A. P. Hill, Virginia.

摘要

PURPOSE: Sustainable land management at Army installations is a critical concern of the modern Army and the Army engineer. A unique soil additive consisting of a polysaccharide polymeric material, a natural product of plant/soil rhyzobial microbial activity, was demonstrated to enhance site vegetation and control erosion. The effort was supported by the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP, Project ER-0920) of the Department of Defense. Rhizobium tropici, a catalogued symbiotic nodulator of leguminous plants (Martinez-Romero et al. 1991), is also known for its prolific production of a gel-like, extracellular polymeric substance (EPS), a biopolymer (Gil-Serrano et al. 1990). The natural functions of the EPS in the rhizosphere include surface adhesion, self-adhesion of cells into biofilms, formation of protective barriers, water retention around roots, and nutrient accumulation (Laspidou and Rittmann 2002). The secretion of EPS by bacteria is recognized as a cohesive force in promoting surface erosion resistance in sediments (Droppo 2009, Gerbersdorf et al. 2008a, 2008b).