Abstract
This study investigated the isotope effects of δ13C and δ15N and microbial response during biodegradation of hydrocarbons by biostimulation with nitrate or compost in the petroleum-contaminated soil. Compost and KNO3 amendments promoted the total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) removal accompanied by a significant increase of Actinobacteria and Firmicutes phyla. Soil alpha diversity decreased after 90 days of biostimulation. An inverse significant carbon isotope effect (εc = 16.6 ± 0.8‰) and strong significant nitrogen isotope effect (εN = -24.20 ± 9.54‰) were shown by the KNO3 supplementation. For compost amendment, significant carbon and nitrogen isotope effect were εc = 38.8 ± 1.1‰ and εN = -79.49 ± 16.41‰, respectively. A clear difference of the carbon and nitrogen stable isotope fractionation was evident by KNO3 or compost amendment, which indicated that the mechanisms of petroleum degradation by adding compost or KNO3 may be different.
Highlights
Petroleum is a mixture of various of hydrocarbons including aliphatic and aromatics fractions
A clear difference of the carbon and nitrogen stable isotope fractionation was evident by KNO3 or compost amendment, which indicated the mechanisms of petroleum degradation by adding compost or KNO3 are different
Compost or KNO3 amendment was more effective for stimulating the activities of indigenous microorganisms than that of deionized water
Summary
Petroleum is a mixture of various of hydrocarbons including aliphatic and aromatics fractions. Due to the slow degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons in the process of natural attenuation, it is important to stimulate the activity of autochthonous microbial consortia using various amendments, which provides an efficient biostimulation strategy with less disturbance to the soil micro-ecosystem. Inorganic salts containing nitrogen and phosphorus are widely applied in remediation of oil contaminated soil (Abed et al, 2015; Shahi et al, 2016b; Wu et al, 2019). Compost amendments have shown good effects in stimulating indigenous microorganisms to degrade petroleum hydrocarbons, and were considered to have great development potential in the future due to the characteristic of recycling waste (Dadrasnia et al, 2016; Huang et al, 2019)
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