Microbial-enhanced phytoremediation for the management of endogenous contamination of substrates

The effective control of endogenous contamination of black and odorous water has become an important work in China. Phytoremediation technology is more widely used, and microbial agent method is gradually accepted due to the absence of chemical agents. In this study, microbial enhanced phytoremediation technology was used to purify black and odorous water, the removal effects of single microorganisms, single plants, and microorganisms-plant combinations on endogenous pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorus in sediment were investigated. The results showed that the combination of microorganisms and plants exhibited better removal effect of total nitrogen and total phosphorus. Moreover, after 56 days, the removal rates of total nitrogen and total phosphorus in the sediment were 43.59% and 52.10%, respectively, which increased by 8.74% and 5.27% compared with that of single microorganisms system, and increased by 19.47% and 9.76% compared with that of single plants system. The synergistic effect of microorganisms and plants could increase the release and absorption rates of nitrogen and phosphorus in sediment, while promote nitrogen and phosphorus cycling. The high-throughput sequencing results showed that the dominant phylum in the microorganism-plant system was Proteobacteria (relative abundance 54%). The dominant phylum was Gammaproteobacteria (49%), and the dominant genus was Cavicella (10%). Microbial enhanced phytoremediation technology could provide technical support for the treatment of black and odorous sediment pollution.