Effects of rhizosphere remediation and bioaugmentation on carbofuran removal from soil

Abstract

Rhizosphere soil contains important sources of nutrients for microorganisms resulting in high number of microorganisms capable of degrading various types of chemicals in the soil. Thus, this study investigated a carbofuran dissipation in rhizosphere soils of 6 weeds namely, umbrella sedge (Cyperus iria L.), fuzzy flatsedge (C. pilosus V.), small flower umbrella plant (C. difformis L.), tall-fringe-rush hoorah grass (Fimbristylis miliacea V.), cover fern (Marsilea crenata P.), and water primrose (Jussiaea linifolia V.). Rhizosphere soil of fuzzy flatsedge showed the shortest half-life (t1/2) of carbofuran (15 days) among other soils. So, it was selected to be used in the bioaugmentation experiment using carbofuran degrader namely Burkholderia cepacia, PCL3, as inoculum in order to examine whether they would improve carbofuran degradation in soil. The results showed that the addition of PCL3 into rhizosphere soil did not improve carbofuran degradation suggesting that microorganisms in rhizosphere soil might be capable enough to remove carbofuran from soil. The number of carbofuran degraders in the rhizosphere soils was greater than in bulk soil 10–100 times which might be responsible to a rapid degradation of carbofuran in rhizosphere soils without the addition of PCL3. The ability of PCL3 to degrade carbofuran was evident in bulk soil (t1/2 of 12 days) and autoclaved soils (t1/2 13–14 days) when compared to soils without an inoculation (t1/2 of 58 days) indicated that the addition of a degrader was useful in improving carbofuran degradation in soil.