Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are global and long-term effective poisonous pollutants. In recent years, the remediation of soils polluted by PHAs has become a hotspot. The past work concentrated on the changes in the PAHs content , less attention has been paid to the changes in PAHs bio-availability and the changes in the ecological risk were not well known. Besides, less attention was paid to the in situ field research and the knowledge on the difference of PAHs bio-availability before and after soil bio-remediation has been scarce.

GUO Meixia, under the guidance of Prof GONG Zongqiang, using solid-phase extraction and Tenax-TA extraction, measured the PAHs bio-availability in crop field soil and soil polluted by coal oven plant, before and after remediation, to analyze the correlations between bio-degradation and bio-availability of PAhat Hs. The results show that the effect of PHAs degradation by microbes was different between crop field and polluted soil in coal oven plant. Solid-phase and Tenax-TA extraction all well predict the amount of PHAs degradation in soil polluted by coal oven plant, but Tenax extraction was more sensitive and efficient in predicting the bio-degradation of polluted soil on crop field. The work provided theoretical basis for bio-remediation of soil polluted by PAHs and references for the risk assessment of bio-remediated soil. The results were published in Chemsphere  (2016, DOI:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2015.10.027) entitled as Variations in the bioavailability of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in industrial and agricultural soils after bioremediation.

The work was supported by NNSFC (41271336) and Key Lab of Ecological and Environmental Engineering IAE(Y3ZDS111YC).