Improvement of pesticide removal in contaminated media using aqueous extracts from contaminated biopurification systems

Inés Aguilar Romero, Pieter van Dillewijn, Joseph Nesme, Søren J. Sørensen, Esperanza Romero

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Despite certain limitations, bioaugmentation enhances the efficiency of bioremediation systems. In this study, three aqueous extracts (APE, ACE and APE) from aged residual biomixtures in three biopurification systems (BPSs) exposed to pesticides at a pilot scale were found to improve pesticide removal. The addition of ACEs and AVEs to solutions containing the model compound diuron increased removal rates 6- and 17-fold, respectively, as compared to APEs. These extracts also increased the removal of the metabolite 3,4-dichloroaniline, while AVEs, in particular, were found to remove all pesticides within 9 days. Three metabolites less hazardous than 3,4-dichloroaniline were identified by SPME/GC/MS. AVEs, which also enhance linuron removal in liquid media, were found to increase diuron removal 6-fold in BPSs. We observed an increase in the relative abundance of taxa, such as Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes, Firmicutes, Deinococcus-Thermus and especially Proteobacteria (10%), in AV biomixtures, as well as an enrichment of γ-proteobacteria and the actinobacterial genus Dokdonella in AVEs with respect to initial noncontaminated IV biomixture. We demonstrate that extracts containing a pollutant-acclimatized microbiome could be used as part of a bioaugmentation strategy to improve the functioning of on-farm BPSs and contaminated systems.

Original languageEnglish
JournalScience of the Total Environment
Volume691
Pages (from-to)749-759
Number of pages11
ISSN0048-9697
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019

Keywords

  • 3,4-dichloroaniline metabolites
  • Aqueous extract
  • Bioaugmentation
  • Dokdonella sp.
  • Microbial consortia
  • Phenylurea herbicide

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