Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 9
Bioremediation of Petroleum Polluted Soils
using
Amaranthus retroflexus
L. and its
Rhizospheral Funji
Fariba Mohsenzadeh and Abdolkarim Chehregani Rad
Abstract
Environmental pollution with petroleum is a global disaster. Bioremedia-
tion of oil contamination in soils is based on the stimulation of petroleum hydrocar-
bon-degrading fungal and microbial communities. Prior researches showed that there
are some petroleum-resistant plants and their root associated fungal strains which
grow in petroleum polluted soils.
Amaranthus retroflexus
L. (Amaranthaceae) is one
of these, that was collected from both Kermanshah and Arak refineries polluted sites
in Iran. The root associated fungi of the plant were determined and results showed
the presence of 6 species which were associated with the roots of the plants growing
in the polluted areas but only three of them were found in non-polluted soils. Cultur-
ing of fungi in oil-contaminated media showed that all the studied fungi were resis-
tant to low petroleum pollution (1 % w/w) and a few species, especially
Fusarium
species, showed higher resistance to petroleum pollution (10 % w/w) and it seems
that they may be suitable for bioremediation in highly polluted areas. Bioremediation
tests with
A. retroflexus
, with and without fungal strains, showed that application of
both plant and its root associated fungal strains was more effective than plant and
fungi separately. Results indicated that fungal strains had the main role in bioreme-
diation of petroleum polluted soils but plant roots enhance the process.
Keywords
Petroleum pollution
·
Rhizosphere fungi
·
Bioremediation
·
Amaranthus
retroflexus
1 Introduction
Petroleum pollution of soil is a global problem. It is a common phenomenon the
most countries (Merkel et al.
2004a
,
b
). There are several soil cleaning meth-
ods including burning, washing, application of chemicals and bioremediation
