Bioaugmentation using Pleurotus ostreatus to Remediate Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) Contaminated River Sediment

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine if polyaromatic hydrocarbon degradation in historically contaminated river sediment could be done when treated with the white-rot fungus Pleurotus ostreatus. P. ostreatus, grown on barley, was added to sediment with various amendments and controls, and incubated in triplicate at 25 ⁰C for 42 days. Treatments included sawdust, shredded newspaper, a nitrogen source, and cyclodextrin. The most effective treatment included the addition of white-rot fungi, sawdust, nitrogen, and cyclodextrin. This treatment showed greater than 50% degradation of 9 out of the 11 PAHs with 95% degradation for benzo fluoranthene. Fungal biomass (total mycelia and metabolically active mycelia) increased in all treatments with added fungi. The greatest increase in fungal biomass appeared in the same treatment with the greatest extent of PAH degradation (from 82 ± 10 m g sediment-1 at time 0 to 374 ± 18 m g sediment-1 at 42 days). These data show that P. ostreatus is capable of colonizing highly contaminated Mahoning River sediment and degrading the PAHs present. With better optimization of amendments, this approach shows potential for remediating historically contaminated river sediment.