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PAH biodegradation by telluric saprotrophic fungi isolated from aged PAH-contaminated soils in mineral medium and historically contaminated soil microcosms

  • Soils, Sec 5 • Soil and Landscape Ecology • Research Article
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

Remediation of contaminated soils is of high relevance considering losses of this limited resource in most countries through erosion or through destruction for societal purposes. Most physicochemical remediation techniques lead to soil destruction avoiding reuse of the sites and loss of soil functions including ecological services like water retention/filtration, plant needs, carbon sequestration, or atmosphere restoration. This study aims to find out efficient telluric PAH-degrading fungi to both remediate soils and preserve their functioning.

Materials and methods

Fifty telluric saprotrophic fungi were thus isolated from different aged PAH-contaminated soils sampled from four brownfields in the North of France. Thirty of these isolates were screened in a mineral medium for their ability to degrade benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) used as a model of HMW PAH. After 9 days of incubation, the remaining BaP was quantified through HPLC analysis. Then, a set of microcosms was performed with an aged PAH-contaminated non-sterile soil encompassing different approaches with bioaugmentation using mycelia of three strains pre-established on expanded clay particles and, for one of these strains, biostimulation strategies including nitrogen or nitrogen/phosphorous supplementations or aeration by stirring. After an incubation time of 30 days, remaining PAH were quantified through GC-MS and evolution of fungal populations evaluated through qPCR.

Results and discussion

Isolated Penicillium canescens, Cladosporium cladosporioides, Fusarium solani, and Talaromyces helicus degraded more than 30% of the initial 500 μg of BaP after 9 days of incubation. The three latest strains were thus inoculated in aged PAH-contaminated soil microcosms. After 30 days, PAH quantitative analyses showed that the highest degradation was obtained by bioaugmentation with T. helicus (26% of the initial total PAH content: 321.7 mg kg−1), which seems high considering an aged industrial contamination. Biostimulation approaches coupled to the inoculation of this strain did not improve the degradation. DNA quantification of the inoculated species confirmed their enrichment in the soil revealing the interest of the used inoculation strategy. We discuss bioaugmentation and biostimulation approaches in the case of the considered pollutants and soil.

Conclusions

A strain identified as T. helicus appears interesting for its HMW PAH degradation capacities both in mineral medium with pure BaP and in industrial non-sterile soil microcosms contaminated with a hydrocarbon complex mixture. This study also confirms the efficiency of a well-studied BaP-degrading strain of F. solani. These results indicate the potentialities of the used bioaugmentation approach and underline the necessity of scale-up strategies to apply this kind of technique on site.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the PROCOPE-DAAD fellowship allowing the international cooperation with a French-German joint-supervised PhD-thesis of A. Fayeulle. A DNA-based approach used for the detection and quantification of fungi in soil has been conducted by ENOVEO, Lyon, France.

Funding

This study was financially supported by the Agency for the Environment and Energy Management (ADEME, France) and the Région Nord-Pas de Calais (France).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale (ULCO), Unité de Chimie Environnementale et Interactions sur le Vivant (UCEIV EA 4492), 59140, Dunkerque, France

    Antoine Fayeulle, Etienne Veignie & Catherine Rafin

  2. Sorbonne University, Université de Technologie de Compiègne, ESCOM, EA 4297 TIMR, Centre de recherche Royallieu, CS 60319, 60203, Compiègne Cedex, France

    Antoine Fayeulle

  3. Institute of Network Biology (INET), Helmholtz Center Munich, Ingolstädter-Landstr. 1, 85764, Oberschleißheim, Germany

    Reiner Schroll

  4. Lehrstuhl für Grünlandlehre, Technische Universität München, 85350, Freising, Germany

    Jean Charles Munch

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  1. Antoine Fayeulle
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  2. Etienne Veignie
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  3. Reiner Schroll
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  4. Jean Charles Munch
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  5. Catherine Rafin
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Correspondence to Antoine Fayeulle or Catherine Rafin.

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Fayeulle, A., Veignie, E., Schroll, R. et al. PAH biodegradation by telluric saprotrophic fungi isolated from aged PAH-contaminated soils in mineral medium and historically contaminated soil microcosms. J Soils Sediments 19, 3056–3067 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-019-02312-8

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