Microbial consortia isolated from aged oil-contaminated soil were used to degrade 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (15.72 mgkg(-1)) in soil and slurry phases. The three microbial consortia (bacteria, fungi and bacteria-fungi complex) could degrade polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and the highest PAH removals were found in soil and slurry inoculated with fungi (50.1% and 55.4%, respec...

Improving the existing knowledge on the enantioselectivity of processes affecting chiral pesticide enantiomers in the environment is necessary to maximize the efficacy and minimize the environmental impact caused by the use of pesticides with chiral properties. In this work, the enantioselectivity of the sorption, degradation, and leaching processes of the chiral fungicide metalaxyl in three sl...

Toluene is one of several cosubstrates able to support the cometabolism of trichloroethylene (TCE) by soil microbial communities. Indigenous microbial populations in soil degraded TCE in the presence, but not the absence, of toluene after a 60- to 80-h lag period. Initial populations of toluene and TCE degraders ranged from 0.2 x 10(3) to 4 x 10(3) cells per g of soil and increased by more than...

Mineralization studies were performed to examine the impact of N deprivation on microbial utilization of the N-heterocyclic herbicides, atrazine and cloransulam-methyl (C-M). Soil depleted by 130 years of cropping to Zea mays without fertilization was contrasted to soil from the same site regularly receiving fertilizers. Long-term N deprivation promoted rapid degradation of atrazine and the C-M...

abstract different definitions have been proposed for soil quality. various soil properties have been suggetsted as soil quality indices by researchers. this research was conducted to study the relationship between slope of retention curve at its inflection point (s index) and other soil physical quality indices, because the reserches between s index and soil physical properties are little. thi...

currently all the waste produced are collected and transferred to the only landfill of tehran,aradkooh (kahrizak), that is located in the south of tehran. this landfill has been in use for over 45 years that has received over 35 million tons of waste during its life. in the present investigation 40 soil samples were collected from aradkooh landfill to know about the origin of metals. the sample...

A study was undertaken to assess if corn plant (Zea may L.) maybe able to enhance the degradation of phenanthrene and pyrene in acidic soil inoculated with a bacterial strain (Pseudomonas putida MUB1) capable of degrading polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Planting with corn, inoculating with MUB1, ora combination of the two were found to promote the degradation of phenanthrene and pyrene...

This paper presents an integrated assessment model aimed at evaluating land degradation by water erosion in dehesa rangelands in the Iberian Peninsula. The model is built following the system dynamics approach. The degradation risk is likened to the probability of losing a certain amount of soil within a number of years, as estimated over a great number of stochastic simulations. Complementary ...

A rapid method for determining residues of the herbicide metribuzin in soil by laboratory experiment under controlled conditions is described. Field soil fortified with herbicide at concentration of 5 mg kg-1 soil, and maintained at field capacity moisture regime and kept at ambient temperature 25 ± 5°C. The soil samples were extracted with different ratio of methanol/water solution and the res...

Land degradation impacts on several critical environmental issues such as food security, diminishing quality and quantity of fresh water resources, preservation of natural resources, loss of biodiversity, and global climate change. Land degradation is responsible for soil erosion and can eventually lead to desertification. The International Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD) defines des...