Bioremediation of fuel oil contaminated soils with vermiculture of earthworms Eisenia andrei, Eisenia fetida, Dendrobaena veneta and microbiological preparations “Baikal-EM”, “Tamir” and “Vostok”

Abstract

The recultivation technology for soils contaminated with fuel oil in the concentration of 150 g/kg in the Western Siberia using microbiological preparations and earthworms was developed. Earthworms have great potential for removing hydrocarbons from the soil, even at high concentrations up to 100 g/kg. The introduction of microbiological preparations increased the survival and reproductive potential of worms in fuel oil contaminated soils and contributed to a significant reduction in the concentration of oil hydrocarbons for 20-22 weeks in a laboratory experiment. Oil contamination is a common environmental threat, and bioremediation is a useful method of soil remediation. Earthworms were shown to stimulate the degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons in soil. The aim of this research was to study the survival, reproductive potential of earworms in fuel oil contaminated soil and ability to degradate total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) with or without earthworms and biopreparations “Baikal-EM”, “Tamir” and “Vo...