Different biological strategies for the bioremediation of naturally polluted soils

Finding an appropriate method with the highest rate of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) removal from naturally polluted soils is important research issue. A pot factorial experiment (using contaminated soil samples Isfahan Refinery, Iran) was conducted in a 90-day period to compare following bioremediation strategies: (1) natural attenuation (NA): inherent ability for bioremediation; (2) bioaugmentation (BA): inoculating PAH degrading microbes Marinobacter hydrocarbonoclasticus; (3) biostimulation (BS): using N, P and K nutrients stimulation bioremediating bacteria achieve C : N ratio 100 10 1, and(4) + (BS BA). Treatments NA (22.8%) BA BS (63.9%) resulted least soil. The 2–4 ring compounds had significantly (P ≤ 0.05) higher degradation than 5–6 compounds. rates were by fluorene (76.41%) acenaphthylene (72.28%) treatment. However, lowest indeno (1,2,3-cd) pyrene (10.05%), benzo [b] fluoranthene (10.17%), (g, h, i) perylene (12.53%), [k] (13.67%), treatments are most effective soils.