Soil Microcosm Study for Bioremediation by a Crude Oil Degrading Pseudomonas aeruginosa NCIM 5514

Agricultural land pollution is a big threat globally, which is associated with petroleum industry activities. Hence, the exploration of remedial methods for the treatment of polluted agricultural soils is necessary. In light of this, the biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbon pollutants is becoming very important. A hydrocarbon degrading Pseudomonas aeruginosa National Collection of Industrial Microorganisms (NCIM) 5514, isolated from crude oil-contaminated soil, has been used for soil microcosm experiments. A bioaugmentation of a contaminated agricultural soil microcosm with P. aeruginosa NCIM 5514 showed 66.07%+/- 1.09% petroleum hydrocarbons degradation in 60 days. This study has resulted in the biodegradation of a considerable amount of petroleum by using single bacteria in 60 days, employing agricultural soil microcosms. The dilution plate-counting technique indicated a population of the Pseudomonas strain to be 5.00 +/- 0.05x107 colony forming units per gram (CFU/g) at zero day (just after bioaugmentation), which decreased to 0.10 +/- 0.02x108 CFU/g at 60 days. The survival of this strain in artificially crude oil contaminated agricultural soil microcosm showed its potential to be used as a bioremediation tool toward farmland restoration.