Bacteria Adaptation to Diesel Polluted Soils

Abstract

Bacteria are known to have been in existence for millions of years with some surviving in extremes of weather conditions (extremophiles). The soil is one habitat that is known to harbor a lot of these organisms as they help in symbiotic relationship for plant growth. This study compared two soil types in Debrecen Hungary and the ability of bacteria to survive diesel contamination in laboratory conditions. The rate of carbon-dioxide emission and the growth of colonies on nutrient media was monitored in the cause of this experiment for sandy and chernozem soil types. The result shows that bacteria were able to survive 20ml volume of diesel contamination for a 100g of soil with increased CO2 emissions. Growth was seen in the colonies formed and the activities of the bacteria increased the rate of CO2 emission.