Abstract
The combination of biochar and bacteria is a promising strategy for the remediation of Cd-polluted soils. However, the synergistic mechanisms of biochar and bacteria for Cd immobilization remain unclear. In this study, the experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of the combination of biochar and Pseudomonas sp. AN-B15, on Cd immobilization, soil enzyme activity, and soil microbiome. The results showed that biochar could directly reduce the motility of Cd through adsorption and formation of CdCO3 precipitates, thereby protecting bacteria from Cd toxicity in the solution. In addition, bacterial growth further induces the formation of CdCO3 and CdS and enhances Cd adsorption by bacterial cells, resulting in a higher Cd removal rate. Thus, bacterial inoculation significantly enhances Cd removal in the presence of biochar in the solution. Moreover, soil incubation experiments showed that bacteria-loaded biochar significantly reduced soil exchangeable Cd in comparison with other treatments by impacting soil microbiome. In particular, bacteria-loaded biochar increased the relative abundance of Bacillus, Lysobacter, and Pontibacter, causing an increase in pH, urease, and arylsulfatase, thereby passivating soil exchangeable Cd and improving soil environmental quality in the natural alkaline Cd-contaminated soil. Overall, this study provides a systematic understanding of the synergistic mechanisms of biochar and bacteria for Cd immobilization in soil and new insights into the selection of functional strain for the efficient remediation of the contaminated environments by bacterial biochar composite.
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This work was supported by the Department of Science and Technology of Yunnan Province (202201BF070001-002, 202201AS070016) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (32260315, 4216070223).
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Jinquan Chen and Chang’e Liu have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work and analysis or interpretation of data for the work. Jinquan Chen has drafted the work or revised it critically for important intellectual content. Zhengjian Yan, Zitong Wang, Guangzhng Si, Guohui Chen, and Tingting Feng performed all the experiments. All persons who have made substantial contributions to the work were reported in the manuscript.
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Yan, ., Wang, Z., Si, G. et al. Bacteria-loaded biochar for the immobilization of cadmium in an alkaline-polluted soil. Environ Sci Pollut Res 31, 1941–1953 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-31299-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-31299-6