Just add water and salt: The optimisation of petrogenic hydrocarbon biodegradation in soils from semi-arid Barrow Island, Western Australia

We investigated the potential of soil moisture and nutrient amendments to enhance the biodegradation of oil in the soils from an ecologically unique semi-arid island. This was achieved using a series of controlled laboratory incubations where moisture or nutrient levels were experimentally manipulat...

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Main Authors: Tibbett, M., George, S., Davie, A., Barron, A., Milton, N., Greenwood, Paul
Format: Journal Article
Published: Springer 2011
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/58625
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author Tibbett, M.
George, S.
Davie, A.
Barron, A.
Milton, N.
Greenwood, Paul
author_facet Tibbett, M.
George, S.
Davie, A.
Barron, A.
Milton, N.
Greenwood, Paul
author_sort Tibbett, M.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description We investigated the potential of soil moisture and nutrient amendments to enhance the biodegradation of oil in the soils from an ecologically unique semi-arid island. This was achieved using a series of controlled laboratory incubations where moisture or nutrient levels were experimentally manipulated. Respired CO2 increased sharply with moisture amendment reflecting the severe moisture limitation of these porous and semi-arid soils. The greatest levels of CO2 respiration were generally obtained with a soil pore water saturation of 50-70%. Biodegradation in these nutrient poor soils was also promoted by the moderate addition of a nitrogen fertiliser. Increased biodegradation was greater at the lowest amendment rate (100 mg N kg -1 soil) than the higher levels (500 or 1,000 mg N kg-1 soil), suggesting the higher application rates may introduce N toxicity. Addition of phosphorous alone had little effect, but a combined 500 mg N and 200 mg P kg-1 soil amendment led to a synergistic increase in CO 2 respiration (3.0×), suggesting P can limit the biodegradation of hydrocarbons following exogenous N amendment. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-586252017-11-24T05:45:57Z Just add water and salt: The optimisation of petrogenic hydrocarbon biodegradation in soils from semi-arid Barrow Island, Western Australia Tibbett, M. George, S. Davie, A. Barron, A. Milton, N. Greenwood, Paul We investigated the potential of soil moisture and nutrient amendments to enhance the biodegradation of oil in the soils from an ecologically unique semi-arid island. This was achieved using a series of controlled laboratory incubations where moisture or nutrient levels were experimentally manipulated. Respired CO2 increased sharply with moisture amendment reflecting the severe moisture limitation of these porous and semi-arid soils. The greatest levels of CO2 respiration were generally obtained with a soil pore water saturation of 50-70%. Biodegradation in these nutrient poor soils was also promoted by the moderate addition of a nitrogen fertiliser. Increased biodegradation was greater at the lowest amendment rate (100 mg N kg -1 soil) than the higher levels (500 or 1,000 mg N kg-1 soil), suggesting the higher application rates may introduce N toxicity. Addition of phosphorous alone had little effect, but a combined 500 mg N and 200 mg P kg-1 soil amendment led to a synergistic increase in CO 2 respiration (3.0×), suggesting P can limit the biodegradation of hydrocarbons following exogenous N amendment. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/58625 10.1007/s11270-010-0549-z Springer restricted
spellingShingle Tibbett, M.
George, S.
Davie, A.
Barron, A.
Milton, N.
Greenwood, Paul
Just add water and salt: The optimisation of petrogenic hydrocarbon biodegradation in soils from semi-arid Barrow Island, Western Australia
title Just add water and salt: The optimisation of petrogenic hydrocarbon biodegradation in soils from semi-arid Barrow Island, Western Australia
title_full Just add water and salt: The optimisation of petrogenic hydrocarbon biodegradation in soils from semi-arid Barrow Island, Western Australia
title_fullStr Just add water and salt: The optimisation of petrogenic hydrocarbon biodegradation in soils from semi-arid Barrow Island, Western Australia
title_full_unstemmed Just add water and salt: The optimisation of petrogenic hydrocarbon biodegradation in soils from semi-arid Barrow Island, Western Australia
title_short Just add water and salt: The optimisation of petrogenic hydrocarbon biodegradation in soils from semi-arid Barrow Island, Western Australia
title_sort just add water and salt: the optimisation of petrogenic hydrocarbon biodegradation in soils from semi-arid barrow island, western australia
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/58625