Management of Polluted Soils by a White-Rot Fungus: Pleurotus pulmonarius

Authors

  • Clementina Oyinkansola Adenipekun Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Ibadan Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria
  • Adeniyi Adewale Ogunjobi Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Ibadan Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria
  • Olufemi Adeyemi Ogunseye Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Ibadan Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

Keywords:

Pleurotus pulmonarius, hydrocarbons, cement polluted soil, mycoremediation

Abstract

There has been increasing interest in the application of organisms and nutrients to contaminated soils for effective degradation of oil. The white-rot fungus Pleurotus pulmonarius was investigated for its ability to mycoremediate polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and heavy metal content in cement and battery wastes polluted soils. The effect of the incubation periods on the contents of cement and battery polluted soil incubated with P. pulmonarius after six and ten weeks was determined.

A general increase in the carbon, organic matter, phosphorus and potassium was observed while a decrease in percentage nitrogen, calcium and pH was observed after 6 and 10 weeks. The heavy metal content of the two polluted soil showed that lead (8 ppm) was constant at 6 and 10 weeks while significant decrease in copper, manganese and nickel was observed in cement contaminated soil. However there was a gradual decrease in lead content of batter polluted soil while copper was not utilized at all. The polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) also decreased from 6.86 in control to 0.56 after 10 weeks of incubation. All of these results show that the cement polluted soil was effectively remediated by the white-rot fungus.

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Issue

Vol. 15 No. 1 (2011): July 2011

Section

Articles