An outdoor soil burial test was carried out to evaluate the degradation of commercially available LDPE carrier bags in natural soil for up to 2 years. Biodegradability of low density polyethylene films in soil was monitored using both optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). After 7-9 months of soil exposure, microbial colonization was evident on the film surface. Exposed LDPE samples ex...

Fungal degradation of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) film in soil was described mathematically in terms of the surface growth rate of fungal hyphae and the degradation ability of fungal depolymerase. The surface growth rate of fungi was derived from the notion of equivalent symmetric tree model and was expressed for the two different growth phases, i.e. exponential phase an...

Soil bacteria have developed novel metabolic abilities resulting in enhanced atrazine degradation. Consequently, there is a need to evaluate the effects of enhanced degradation on parameters used to model atrazine fate and transport. The objectives of this study were (i) to screen Colorado (CO) and Mississippi (MS) atrazine-adapted and non-adapted soil for genes that code for enzymes able to ra...

Transfer of the 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) degradation plasmids pEMT1 and pJP4 from an introduced donor strain, Pseudomonas putida UWC3, to the indigenous bacteria of two different horizons (A horizon, depth of 0 to 30 cm; B horizon, depth of 30 to 60 cm) of a 2,4-D-contaminated soil was investigated as a means of bioaugmentation. When the soil was amended with nutrients, plasmid tr...

Laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate the enhanced degradation of isofenphos [ 1methylethyl 24 [ethoxy[ (1-methylethyl)amino]phosphinothioyl]oxy] benzoate] in soil and to elucidate the microbiology of this phenomenon. [U-ring-'4CIIsofenphos was most rapidly degraded in Iowa cornfield soils that had a history of isofenphos insecticide use. Between 13 and 42% of an applied dose of ...

During the autumn of 2000, England and Wales experienced the wettest conditions for over 270 years, causing significant flooding. The exceptional combination of a wet spring and autumn provided the potential for soil structural degradation. Soils prone to structural degradation under five common lowland cropping systems (autumn-sown crops, late-harvested crops, field vegetables, orchards and sh...

Geochemical and biological processes that operate in the soil matrix and on the soil surface are important to the degradation of biosolids in soil. Due to the large surface area of soils it is assumed that the microbial ecology is associated with mineral soil surface area. The total mineral surface areas were determined for soils from eight different fields selected from a long term study (1972...