Biofiltration of residual fertilizer nitrate and atrazine by Rhizobium meliloti in saturated and unsaturated sterile soil columns.

This study was undertaken to investigate whether microbial bioaugmentation of subsurface soil with subsurface irrigation could be used as a biofiltration/biocontrol technology for agricultural pollutants. Nine Plexiglas columns, 458 mm long x 139 mm in diameter, were packed with a sterilized sandy loam soil. Subsurface irrigation, through a controlled water table management system, was used to deliver bacteria, Rhizobium meliloti A-025, to the soil and to maintain aerobic (unsaturated) or anaerobic (saturated) conditions in the columns. Nitrate and atrazine, a fertilizer and a corn herbicide, were applied to the soil surface, and leaching was affected by simulated rainfall events. The soil and drainage waters were analyzed for nitrate and atrazine residues after each rainfall simulation throughout the experimental period during which the soil was kept saturated for a total of 80 days and unsaturated for a total of 70 days. The monitoring of transport and survival of the implanted bacterial strain (A-025) showed that subsurface irrigation was successful in introducing and transporting the bacteria throughout the soil columns. During the saturated period, significantly more (95% probability) nitrate-N leached into the drainage waters from the control columns than from the bioaugmented columns; the increase being 450% or more for the abiotic control columns. The amount of atrazine that leached into the drainage waters during the unsaturated period was also significantly more from control columns as opposed to bioaugmented columns, with the increase being 262%.