Phospholipid anaysis of extant microbiota for monitoring in situ bioremediation effectiveness

Two sites undergoing bioremediation were studied using the signature lipid biomarker (SLB) technique. This technique isolates microbial lipid moieties specifically related to viable biomass and to both prokaryotic and eukaryotic biosynthetic pathways. The first site was a South Pacific atoll heavily contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons. The second site was a mine waste reclamation area. The SLB technique was applied to quantitate directly the viable biomass, community structure, and nutritional/physiological status of the microbiota in the soils and subsurface sediments of these sites. All depths sampled at the Kwajalein Atoll site showed an increase in biomass that correlated with the co-addition of air, water, and nutrients. Monoenoic fatty acids increased in abundance with the nutrient amendment, which suggested an increase in gram-negative bacterial population. Ratios of specific phospholipid fatty acids indicative of nutritional stress decreased with the nutrient amendment. Samples taken from the mine reclamation site showed increases in total microbial biomass and in Thiobacillus biomass in the plots treated with lime and bactericide, especially when a cover soil was added. The plot treated with bactericide and buffered lime without the cover soil showed some decrease in Thiobacillus numbers, but was still slightly higher than that observed in the control plots.