Methods for Monitoring Biodegradation of Pollutants in Estuarine Sediments

"The use of microorganisms to bioremediate hydrocarbon-contaminated marine sediments is being investigated as an attractive alternative to the conventional means of environmental restoration efforts in which dredging and disposal of harbor sediments canbecome cost prohibitive. Where the aerobic biodegradation of hydrocarbons is well established, many of the hydrocarbon-contaminated marine sediments become anoxic within millimeters of the sediment-water interface. Recently, the ability of anaerobicsulfate-reducing bacteria to biodegrade a variety of hydrocarbons including straight and branched alkanes, mono- and alkylaromatic hydrocarbons, as well as polyaromatic hydrocarbons has been well documented. The ability to assess whether in situremediation of hydrocarbons are occurring in marine sediments is an important aspect in the remedial strategy of natural attenuation. This proposal will deal with the ability to extract pore water from marine sediments and analyze them by GC/MS for thepresence of known intermediates of aerobic and anaerobic hydrocarbon decay. The ability to detect signature metabolites of hydrocarbon biodegradation will provide strong evidence for the natural attenuation of these pollutants in marine sediments.Further, the potential commercialization of a screening method and protocol could provide the basis for testing an extensive array of marine and harbor environments around the United States. The ability to r