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Herzyk, A. ; Maloszewski, P. ; Qiu, S. ; Elsner, M. ; Griebler, C.

Intrinsic potential for immediate biodegradation of toluene in a pristine, energy-limited aquifer.

Biodegradation 25, 325-336 (2014)
Publ. Version/Full Text Volltext DOI PMC
Open Access Green as soon as Postprint is submitted to ZB.
Pristine and energy-limited aquifers are considered to have a low resistance and resilience towards organic pollution. An experiment in an indoor aquifer system revealed an unexpected high intrinsic potential for the attenuation of a short-term toluene contamination. A 30 h pulse of 486 mg of toluene, used as a model contaminant, and deuterated water (D2O) through an initially pristine, oxic, and organic carbon poor sandy aquifer revealed an immediate aerobic toluene degradation potential. Based on contaminant and tracer break-through curves, as well as mass balance analyses and reactive transport modelling, a contaminant removal of 40 % over a transport distance of only 4.2 m in less than one week of travel time was obtained. The mean first-order degradation rate constant was λ = 0.178 day-1, corresponding to a half-life time constant T1/2 of 3.87 days. Toluene-specific stable carbon isotope analysis independently proved that the contaminant mass removal can be attributed to microbial biodegradation. Since average doubling times of indigenous bacterial communities were in the range of months to years, the aerobic biodegradation potential observed is assumed to be present and active in the pristine, energy-limited groundwater ecosystems at any time. Follow-up experiments and field studies will help to quantify the immediate natural attenuation potential of aquifers for selected priority contaminants and will try to identify the key-degraders within the autochthonous microbial communities.
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Publication type Article: Journal article
Document type Scientific Article
Corresponding Author
Keywords CSIA; Groundwater ecosystem; Natural attenuation; Resilience; Resistance; Hydrocarbon-degrading Bacteria; Stable-isotope Fractionation; Natural Attenuation; Aromatic-hydrocarbons; Contaminated Aquifer; Aerobic Biodegradation; Porous-media; Groundwater Ecosystems; Microbial-populations; Organic Contaminants
ISSN (print) / ISBN 0923-9820
e-ISSN 1572-9729
Journal Biodegradation
Quellenangaben Volume: 25, Issue: 3, Pages: 325-336 Article Number: , Supplement: ,
Publisher Springer
Publishing Place New York
Non-patent literature Publications
Reviewing status Peer reviewed
Institute(s) Institute of Groundwater Ecology (IGOE)