The purpose of the present study was to investigate possible methods to enhance the rate of biodegradation of oil sludge from crude oil tank bottom, thus reducing the time usually required for bioremediation. Enhancement of biodegradation was achieved through bioaugmentation and biostimulation. About 10% and 20% sludge contaminated sterile and non-sterile soil samples were treated with bacteria...

The short-term response of the resident soil bacterial and fungal communities to the addition of 5% (w/w) of either dry olive mill residue (DOR), DOR treated with Phlebia sp. (PTDOR) or DOR previously extracted with water (WEDOR) was investigated. As opposed to bacteria, the diversity of fungi increased upon the amendments as assessed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of 18S rDNA. Over...

Soil amendment with organic materials (crop residues animal manure, and green manure) reportedly has positive effects on soil properties, from acidity to plant-nutrient availability. To examine that hypothesis, an incubation study was conducted to assess the changes in some chemical properties of three different tropical soils (Andisol, Ultisol, and Oxisol) amended with chicken manure and green...

Microbial amendments have received considerable interest in sustainable agriculture for enhancing crop productivity, improving soil quality, and reducing inputs of chemical fertilizers and pesticides (Hussain et al., 1999). Microbial amendments are also known as biofertilizers, biodynamic fertilizers or microbial inoculants, which are comprised of living microorganisms that can function as chem...

Application of manure or soil amendments of animal origin (untreated soil amendments; UTSAs) to agricultural land has been a long-standing practice to maintain or improve soil quality through addition of organic matter, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Much smaller quantities of these types of UTSAs are applied to land used for food crops than to land used for animal grain and forage. UTSAs can harbor...

The objective of the study was to provide a model to predict the uptake of arsenic and mercury by plants in response to coal combustion byproducts (CCB) application rates to soil, based on CCB/soil characteristics as determined by sequential extraction of the amended soil. Two greenhouse studies were conducted. The first study consisted of sorghum sudan grass, sunflower, and brake fern, an arse...

The effects of additions of three wastes from sugar mills on the properties of an acid soil were investigated. The wastes used were boiler ash and filter cake from a conventional milling operation and fly ash from a new milling process, where filter cake is burnt in the boilers. Additions of each of the wastes at two sites raised soil pH and increased maize yields in a pot experiment; the effec...

iii CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THESIS OUTLINE 1 CHAPTER 2: SURVEY OF GRAIN AMARANTH PRODUCTION AND SOIL PROPERTIES IN KAMULI DISTRICT OF UGANDA 48 CHAPTER 3: ORGANIC GRAIN AMARANTH ON-STATION EXPERIMENTS IN UGANDA 76 CHAPTER 4: ORGANIC GRAIN AMARANTH ON-FARM EXPERIMENTS IN UGANDA 139 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 176 APPENDIX I: AMARANTH SURVEY 187 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 189