Effect of compost amendment and bioaugmentation on PAH degradation and microbial community shifting in petroleum-contaminated soil

Abstract

Efficient degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in a petroleum-contaminated soil was challenging which requires ample PAH-degrading flora and nutrients. In this study, we investigated the effects of ‘natural attenuation’, ‘bioaugmentation’, ‘compost only (raw materials of compost included pig manure and rice husk mixed at a 1:2 proportion, supplemented with 2.5% charcoal)’, and ‘compost with bioaugmentation’ treatments on degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and microbial community shifts during the remediation of petroleum-contaminated soil. After sixteen weeks of incubation, the removal efficiencies of PAHs were 0.52 ± 0.04%, 6.92 ± 0. 32%, 9.53 ± 0.29%, and 18.2 ± 0.64% in the four treatments, respectively. ‘Compost with bioaugmentation’ was the most effective for PAH removal among all the treatments. Illumina sequencing analysis suggested that both the ‘compost only’ and ‘compost with bioaugmentation’ treatments changed soil microbial community structures and enhanced microbial biodiversity. Some of the microorganisms affiliated with the compost including Azomonas, Luteimonas, Pseudosphingobacterium, and Parapedobacter were able to survive and become dominant in the contaminated soil. The ‘bioaugmentation and ‘natural attenuation’ treatments had no significant effects on soil microbial community structure. Inoculation of the PAH degraders including Bacillus, Pseudomonas, and Acinetobacter directly into the contaminated soil led to lower biodiversity under natural conditions. This result suggested that compost addition increased the α-diversity of both the bacterial and fungal communities in petroleum-contaminated soil, leading to higher PAH degradation efficiency in petroleum-contaminated soil.