Charcoal plus bacteria team up to clean herbicide-tainted farm soil
Javed A, Rashid KT, Rasheed R, Anwar S, Wang W
Phytoremediation
Herbicide residue lingering in soil can stunt whatever you plant next, and this approach shows a cheap, biochar-based fix that farmers and gardeners could eventually use to restore treated soil faster.
Researchers found four types of bacteria that can eat through a mix of three herbicides used on wheat fields. When they stuck those bacteria onto rice husk charcoal and added it to contaminated soil, the herbicides broke down faster and more completely than with bacteria alone, and seedlings grown in that soil were healthier.
Key Findings
Bacterial consortium AF-3 degraded 98% fluroxypyr-meptyl, 66% mesosulfuron-methyl, and 88% florasulam in liquid culture within 16 days
In wheat-vegetated soil, biochar-immobilized AF-3 cut herbicide residues by 90%, 78%, and 88% for the three compounds, outperforming free (non-immobilized) bacteria which achieved 82%, 58%, and 82%
Apparent half-lives with biochar-immobilized bacteria were 35, 66, and 39 days for fluroxypyr-meptyl, mesosulfuron-methyl, and florasulam respectively, and rice seed bioassays showed lower phytotoxicity in treated soil
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists combined four herbicide-eating bacteria with rice husk charcoal to clean up soil contaminated with three common wheat herbicides. The charcoal-bacteria combo removed up to 90% of the chemical residues and reduced harm to germinating seeds compared to using bacteria alone.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Rice husk biochar-immobilized bacterial consortium enhances reduction of parent-herbicide residues in wheat-vegetated soil contaminated with a ternary herbicide mixture.
In this study, bacterial consortium AF-3 comprising of four herbicide-degrading bacterial strains was evaluated for the remediation of a ternary mixture of fluroxypyr-meptyl, mesosulfuron-methyl an...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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Wheat is a group of wild and domesticated grasses of the genus Triticum. As cereals, they are cultivated for their grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known wheat species and hybrids include the most widely grown common wheat, spelt, durum, emmer, einkorn, and Khorasan or Kamut....