Influence of phosphorus and organic matter on microbial transformation of arsenic

Abstract Experiment was conducted with an arsenic polluted soil (16.5 mg kg−1) to investigate different level of organic matter and phosphorus on microbial transformation of arsenic with two bacterial strain viz Citrobacter sp. strain BC-1 and Pseudomonas sp. strain BC-1. Organic matter application as FYM @ 10 t ha−1 decreased the total (12.57 and 12.33 mg kg−1) and extractable soil arsenic (1.07 and 0.87 mg kg−1) significantly; and increased the bacterial population (144.33 and 200.83 CFU × 107), microbial biomass carbon (676.33 and 848.67 mg kg−1) and extractable soil phosphorus (14.43 and 14.80 mg kg−1) in arsenic polluted soil with Citrobacter sp. strain BC-1 and Pseudomonas sp. strain BC-1, respectively. Addition of phosphorus @ 15 mg kg−1 significantly reduced the total soil arsenic (8.77 and 8.60 mg kg−1) with Citrobacter sp. strain BC-1 and Pseudomonas sp. strain BC-1, respectively. The best result was obtained by Pseudomonas sp. strain BC-1 than Citrobacter sp. strain BC-1. Thus organic matter and phosphorus along with bacterial strains have ability to mitigate the arsenic polluted soil and can be used for bio-remediation.