Depth-resolved quantification of anaerobic toluene degraders and aquifer microbial community patterns in distinct redox zones of a tar oil contaminant plume.

ABSTRACT: Microbial degradation is the only sustainable component of natural attenuation in contaminated groundwater environments, yet its controls, especially in anaerobic aquifers, are still poorly understood. Hence, putative spatial correlations between specific populations of key microbial players and the occurrence of respective degradation processes remain to be unraveled. We therefore characterized microbial community distribution across a high-resolution depth profile of a tar oil-impacted aquifer where benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX) degradation depends mainly on sulfate reduction. We conducted depth-resolved terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism fingerprinting and quantitative PCR of bacterial 16S rRNA and benzylsuccinate synthase genes (bssA) to quantify the

SUBMITTER: Winderl C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2227732 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature