Bioremediation of hydrocarbons contaminated waters and soils: monitoring by luminescent bacteria test

Bioremediation has proven successful in numerous applications to petroleum hydrocarbons or chlorinated aromatic hydrocarbons contaminated soils. There is increasing interest in application of biotoxicity tests for ecological assessment and for supporting management decisions for remediation. Luminescent assays, light-emitting bacteria in particular, can be a suitable tool for environmental analysis, and in vivo luminescence is a rapid and precise indicator of the toxic effects of xenobiotic on micro-organisms. In this study, three different strains of marine bioluminescent bacteria have been employed to follow the changes in biotoxicity occurring during the laboratory scale bioremediation of water and soil samples contaminated by hydrocarbons and collected at an industrial area. The degradation was made by hydrocarbons degrading bacteria, both of commercial sources and isolated from polluted water and soils. The samples were treated for 45 days. The toxicity of the samples, before and after the bioremediation, was determined directly on water samples or on the extracts of soil samples. The yield of extraction by different solvents (acetone, dioxane, ethanol and dichloromethane) was evaluated by the bioluminescent test. The measurements were carried out using a microplate format both for short time of contact (60 minutes, acute toxicity) and for longer time intervals (24 hours, chronic toxicity). The results have been expressed as percentage of inhibition with respect to the blank emission (100% emission). Original and treated samples have been analysed by gas chromatography to assess the hydrocarbons (C > 12 and Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls, PCB) content. The autochthonous bacteria isolated from polluted samples proved less effective, due to the short time for selection in remediation activity with respect to the commercial ones, but their capacity to degrade long chain hydrocarbons was satisfactory. The presented laboratory study can be applied also in case of on-field conditions.