Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a large group of organic compounds with two or more fused aromatic rings. They have a relatively low solubility in water, but are highly lipophilic. Most of the PAHs with low vapour pressure in the air are adsorbed on particles. When dissolved in water or adsorbed on particulate matter, PAHs can undergo photodecomposition when exposed to ultraviolet light from solar radiation. In the atmosphere, PAHs can react with pollutants such as ozone, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide, yielding diones, nitro- and dinitro-PAHs, and sulfonic acids, respectively. PAHs may also be degraded by some microorganisms in the soil. PAHs are widespread environmental contaminants resulting from incomplete combustion of organic materials. The occurrence is largely a result of anthropogenic emissions such as fossil fuel-burning, motor vehicle, waste incinerator, oil refining, coke and asphalt production, and aluminum production, etc. PAHs have received increased attention in recent years in air pollution studies because some of these compounds are highly carcinogenic or mutagenic. Eight PAHs (Car-PAHs) typically considered as possible carcinogens are: benzo(a)anthracene, chrysene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, benzo(a)pyrene (B(a)P), dibenzo(a,h)anthracene, indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene and benzo(g,h,i)perylene. In particular, benzo(a)pyrene has been identified as being highly carcinogenic. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has promulgated 16 unsubstituted PAHs (EPA-PAH) as priority pollutants. Thus, exposure assessments of PAHs in the developing world are important. The scope of this review will be to give an overview of PAH concentrations in various environmental samples and to discuss the advantages and limitations of applying these parameters in the assessment of environmental risks in ecosystems and human health. As it well known, there is an increasing trend to use the behavior of pollutants (i.e. bioaccumulation) as well as pollution-induced biological and biochemical effects on human organisms to evaluate or predict the impact of chemicals on ecosystems. Emphasis in this review will, therefore, be placed on the use of bioaccumulation and biomarker responses in air, soil, water and food, as monitoring tools for the assessment of the risks and hazards of PAH concentrations for the ecosystem, as well as on its limitations.

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Monitoring of environmental exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: a review

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous in the natural environment and easily accumulate in soil and sediment due to their low solubility and high hydrophobicity, rendering them less available for biological degradation. However, microbial degradation is a promising mechanism which is responsible for the ecological recovery of PAH-contaminated soil and sediment for removing these recalcitrant compounds compared with chemical degradation of PAHs. The goal of this review is to provide an outline of the current knowledge of biodegradation of PAHs in related aspects. Over 102 publications related to PAH biodegradation in soil and sediment are compiled, discussed, and analyzed. This review aims to discuss PAH degradation under various redox potential conditions, the factors affecting the biodegradation rates, degrading bacteria, the relevant genes in molecular monitoring methods, and some recent-year bioremediation field studies. The comprehensive understanding of the bioremediation kinetics and molecular means will be helpful for optimizing and monitoring the process, and overcoming its limitations in practical projects.

https://hub.hku.hk/bitstream/10722/139036/1/Content.pdf

Bacteria-mediated PAH degradation in soil and sediment.

The degradation of spiked anthracene (ANT), pyrene (PYR) and benzo[ a ]pyrene (B[ a ]P) in soil (3000 mg ∑ 3 PAHs kg −1 dry soil) was studied in aerobically incubated microcosms for 120 d. The applied treatments aimed at enhancing PAH removal from the heavily contaminated soils are: (i) bioaugmentation by adding aged PAH-contaminated soil (ACS) containing activated indigenous degraders; and (ii) combined bioaugmentation/biostimulation by incorporating sewage sludge compost (SSC) and decaying rice straw (DRS). The adopted treatments produced higher PAH dissipation rates than those observed in unamended PAH-spiked soils, especially for ANT and PYR in the presence of DRS or ACS (>96%). However, B[ a ]P was the most recalcitrant hydrocarbon to biodegradation. Extracellular enzyme investigation revealed the existence of ligninolytic activities in all soil treatments, including control but no relationship could be found with PAH dissipation. The ecotoxicological assessment indicated that regardless of applied treatment, PAH-spiked soils were chronically lethal to ostracod Heterocypris incongruens and confirmed the sensitivity of the microcrustacean to the concomitant presence of these three hydrocarbons. Lettuce root elongation inhibition was correlated with PAH level but the presence of SSC conferred a strong phytotoxic capacity to PAH-spiked soils. DRS amendment may constitute a cost-effective alternative for hydrocarbon bioremediation as it has impacted positively on soil microbial activity and enhanced PAH removal with no apparent changes in soil physico-chemical properties.

Bioaugmentation and biostimulation effects on PAH dissipation and soil ecotoxicity under controlled conditions

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are compounds of intense public concern due to their persistence in the environment and potentially deleterious effects on human, environmental and ecological health. The clean up of such contaminants using invasive technologies has proven to be expensive and more importantly often damaging to the natural resource properties of the soil, sediment or aquifer. Bioremediation, which exploits the metabolic potential of microbes for the clean-up of recalcitrant xenobiotic compounds, has come up as a promising alternative. Several approaches such as improvement in PAH solubilization and entry into the cell, pathway and enzyme engineering and control of enzyme expression etc. are in development but far from complete. Successful application of the microorganisms for the bioremediation of PAH-contaminated sites therefore requires a deeper understanding of the physiology, biochemistry and molecular genetics of potential catabolic pathways. In this review, we briefly summarize important strategies adopted for PAH bioremediation and discuss the potential for their improvement.

/pdf/bacterial-metabolism-of-polycyclic-aromatic-hydrocarbons-1wm116jqu0.pdf

Bacterial metabolism of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: strategies for bioremediation.

To determine whether the diversity of phenanthrene-degrading bacteria in an aged polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contaminated soil is affected by the addition of plant root exudates, DNA stable isotope probing (SIP) was used. Microcosms of soil with and without addition of ryegrass exudates and with 13C-labelled phenanthrene (PHE) were monitored over 12 days. PHE degradation was slightly delayed in the presence of added exudate after 4 days of incubation. After 12 days, 68% of added PHE disappeared both with and without exudate. Carbon balance using isotopic analyses indicated that a part of the 13C-PHE was not totally mineralized as 13CO(2) but unidentified 13C-compounds (i.e. 13C-PHE or 13C-labelled metabolites) were trapped into the soil matrix. Temporal thermal gradient gel electrophoresis (TTGE) analyses of 16S rRNA genes were performed on recovered 13C-enriched DNA fractions. 16S rRNA gene banding showed the impact of root exudates on diversity of PHE-degrading bacteria. With PHE as a fresh sole carbon source, Pseudoxanthomonas sp. and Microbacterium sp. were the major PHE degraders, while in the presence of exudates, Pseudomonas sp. and Arthrobacter sp. were favoured. These two different PHE-degrading bacterial populations were also distinguished through detection of PAH-ring hydroxylating dioxygenase (PAH-RHD(alpha)) genes by real-time PCR. Root exudates favoured the development of a higher diversity of bacteria and increased the abundance of bacteria containing known PAH-RHD(alpha) genes.

http://www.crpg.cnrs-nancy.fr/spip.php?action=acceder_document&arg=583&cle=5a73a66d86d190cd643f5d145bfdb3894d22b2e5&file=pdf%2F2089.pdf

E.J. Joner

Papers

PAH dissipation in a contaminated river sediment under oxic and anoxic conditions.