Anaerobic biodegradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with amendment of iron(III) in mangrove sediment slurry

Mangrove sediment, influenced by tidal cycles, switches between low-oxygen and non-oxygen conditions, and iron is abundant in it. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contamination often occurs in mangrove wetlands. In the present paper, the effects of iron [Fe(III)] amendment on the biodegradation of four mixed PAHs, namely fluorene (Fl), phenanthrene (Phe), fluoranthene (Flua) and pyrene (Pyr), in mangrove sediment slurries, with and without the inoculation of the enriched PAH-degrading bacterial consortia, under low-oxygen (2 ± 0.3% O2) and non-oxygen (0% O2) conditions were investigated. Under both oxygen conditions and for all four PAHs, the highest PAHs biodegradation was observed in the groups with the inoculation of the enriched PAH-degrading consortia, while the groups without the inoculum and without Fe(III) amendment had the lowest biodegradation. However, the amendment of Fe(III) did not show any significant improvement on the biodegradation of all the four mixed PAHs.