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8752083 
Meetings & Symposia 
Improving contaminated soil remediation – Using plants to promote beneficial bacteria 
Quesnel, M; Cryer, K; Poltorak, B; Dunn, A; Rogochevski, L; Gerwing, P; Murray, E; Greenberg, B 
2021 
Environment Canada 
776-787 
English 
Earthmaster Environmental Strategies has successfully developed plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR)-enhanced phytoremediation systems (PEPSystems®) for the remediation of petroleum hydrocarbons (PHC) and salt in contaminated soil. PEPSystems utilize PGPR seed treatment to improve plant growth and increase production of root biomass in impacted soils. This increases amounts of endogenous rhizobacteria in soil to enable degradation of PHCs, and uptake of salt into plant foliage. Oil and gas related contaminants in soil can harm the resident microbes, leading to poor quality soil and inhibited plant growth, resulting in a further reduction in soil quality. PEPSystems can be used to restore soil health to facilitate accelerated degradation of organic contaminants, salt sequestration and improved plant growth. Growth chamber studies were conducted with poor quality subsoil with very low bacteria numbers and salt contaminated agricultural soil. These studies demonstrated that the presence of plants increased the amount of culturable bacteria in the soil and maintained the elevated levels for a longer period of time compared to biostimulated unplanted soil or soil that received the addition of a microbial mix in the absence of plants. Results from full scale phytoremediation studies demonstrated the benefits of having good plant growth when using rhizobacteria to remediate PHCs and showed that bacteria levels are maintained in the soil even when active plant growth is not present, provided some roots and their associated bacteria are present in the soil. © 2021 Proceedings of the 43rd AMOP Technical Seminar on Environmental Contamination and Response. All rights reserved.