Consumption and alteration of different organic matter sources during remediation of a sandy sulfuric soil

Abstract Saturated acid sulfate soils with hypersulfidic material are productive wetland soils, but when they dry, they generate large amounts of sulfuric acid due to oxidation of pyrite to form sulfuric material (pH 2 release, and to higher proportions of newly-formed mineral-associated OC. The addition of OC as lactate solution to promote specifically SRB was only successful in combination with wheat straw addition. Here, the presence of lactate led to the quickest changes of pH and redox values and resulted in pH ≥7 and redox values ≤ −300 mV due to an active microbial population. Our results indicate that a diverse microbial community is more important for successful remediation than a selective promotion of SRB.