Kirk T Semple

• PhD
• Professor at Lancaster University

Nutrient-limited soils from growing global contamination with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and the massive organic waste generation from agro-based and food industries have raised more demand for exploring and recycling the latter as sustainable, cost-efective, and green nutrient-rich sources for soil amendment. To further enhanced the...

Wood bottom and fly ashes were added to the anaerobic digestate using sulfuric, hydrochloric, nitric, and lactic acids, as pH conditioners and sorption activating agents. Minimum (pH of zero-point charge), mild, and severe acidification of the samples were tested. The solid-liquid separation achieved was accounted visually and with the measurement...

Rapid urbanisation in China has resulted in an increased demand for land in towns and cities. To upgrade and modernize, China has also moved many major industries from urban centres to less populated areas. With the high economic value of urban land, the transformation and utilisation of brownfield areas have become important economically and socia...

The present study investigated the acidification treatment of an agrowaste digestate and a food waste digestate, which is necessary before the addition of the wood ashes to attain the pH of zero point of charge in the blend intended to behave as a slow-release fertilizer. The 336-h acidification treatments of the 2.39 ± 0.35 g of digestates were pe...

This transdisciplinary literature review paper aims at addressing the literature lacuna in community engagement and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in sub-Saharan countries. By responding to a set of identified WASH-related questions to community engagement, it explores through different disciplinary lenses the challenges and opportunities in...

Biochar–soil microbiota interactions may occur within a short or long period of time after application, and the behaviour of biochar could determine their impacts on soil. In comparison, modifications in soil microbiota function, structure, biomass and/or ecosystemic function following biochar application could translate to changes in soil fertilit...

Pathways for replacing chemical fertilisers (reliant on rock P resources) with alternative P-bearing materials require assessment of soil processes, crop nutrient acquisition and potential pollution consequences. We examined bioenergy waste materials, individually and as combined ash and anaerobic digestate in terms of plant P availability and mobi...

Anthropogenic chemical pollution has the potential to pose one of the largest environmental threats to humanity, but global understanding of the issue remains fragmented. This article presents a comprehensive perspective of the threat of chemical pollution to humanity, emphasising male fertility, cognitive health and food security. There are seriou...

Handling of food waste and agro-industrial waste digestates, and fly and bottom wood ashes represents an economic and environmental problem for society and industries where they are produced due to the requirement of large capacity storage facilities with special conditions. Since both materials contain important nutrients for crops, two different...

The use of organic amendments, including livestock slurry, in intensive grassland soils may result in a temporary increase or decrease in soil organic matter (SOM) mineralisation through microbial activity (positive or negative priming effect, PE). However, the effects of applying organic amendments of different complexity on the activity and compo...

This study investigated the extractability, bioaccessibility and biodegradation of ¹⁴C-phenanthrene and ¹⁴C-octacosane in two soils from former oil refinery facilities over 341 days. The impact of biostimulation and bioaugmentation treatments was also evaluated. At 0, 31, 62, 124 and 341 days, the loss and extractability (using dichloromethane, met...

The addition of wood bottom ash to an agrowaste anaerobic digestate has been proposed for improving the carbon to nutrient ratio of the soil organic amendment (C/N/P < 100/10/1). The ash-based treatment also aimed to improve properties of the anaerobic digestate as controlled-release fertilizer by decreasing the availability of nitrogen, carbon, an...

Trace-level plutonium in the environment often comprises local and global contributions, and is usually anthropogenic in origin. Here, we report estimates of local and global contributions to trace-level plutonium in soil from a former, fast-breeder reactor site. The measured ²⁴⁰Pu/²³⁹Pu ratio is anomalously low, as per the reduced ²⁴⁰Pu yield expe...

A disturbance in the normal physiology of soil macroinvertebrates can cause toxic impacts and/or disruption in mechanisms and rates of respiration. In this work, respiration rates of earthworms exposed to phenanthrene and its nitrogen heterocyclic analogs was investigated over a 30 and 90-d soil-contact-time. The study involved measurement and calc...

The Niger Delta has a long history of oil and gas exploration and production, but this has come with a heavy environmental cost arising from oil spills and other pollution events. Two oil spills in Ogoniland in 2008/9 were by far the largest in terms of both duration (149 days combined) and magnitude (82,939,170 litres combined), but little is unde...

Applying digestate, the residue from anaerobic digestion, to soil as a replacement for inorganic fertiliser is of growing interest in agriculture. However, the impacts of different fractions of digestate on the soil carbon (C) cycle remain unclear and provide the focus for the research reported here. We examined the effects of applying whole digest...

Fluorene, a low molecular weight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), is of immense environmental interest because of its carcinogenicity, teratogenicity, mutagenicity, toxicity and persistence to microbial degradation. Existentially, there is paucity of information on PAH degradation by fungi isolated from marine environment. Therefore, this stu...

The indiscriminate disposal of olsalazine in the environment poses a threat to human health and natural ecosystems because of its cytotoxic and genotoxic nature. In the present study, degradation efficiency of olsalazine by the marine-derived fungus, Aspergillus aculeatus (MT492456) was investigated. Optimization of physico-chemical parameters (pH....

Plants and their roots, in particular, may be important in stimulating microbial degradation of organic contaminants in soil. It is also known that bioaccessibility is important in controlling the biodegradation of organic contaminants in soil. This study aimed to assess the impact of plant roots on the biodegradation and bioaccessibility of 14C-ph...

Anaerobic digestate is a waste product of biogas generation which is produced in large amounts and, because of its high water content, it is expensive to store, transport, and spread to land. Additionally, special conditions are required for land application to minimise the losses of nutrients. This material is primarily used as source of organic m...

The present study investigated the efficiency of Aspergillus sydowii strain bpo1 (GenBank Accession Number: MK373021) in the removal of anthracene (100mg/L). Optimal degradation efficiency (98.7%) was observed at neutral pH, temperature (30°C), biomass weight (2g) and salinity (0.2%w/v) within 72h. The enzyme analyses revealed 131%, 107%, and 89% i...

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Polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) pollution has been the focus of environmental research, mostly due to their mutagenicity, carcinogenicity, teratogenicity and genotoxicity. Concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and the nitrogen-containing analogues (N-PAHs) (which tend to accumulate in sediments rather than water) was measur...

Biochar is a by-product from the pyrolysis of biomass and has a great potential in soil amendment due to its carbon and nutrient-rich properties. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of increasing amounts (0, 0.01, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5 and1.0%) of two types of biochar (so-called enhanced and non-enhanced) to soil on the biodegradation of14C...

Chemical-surveys of sediments are source of information about historical-pollution in aquatic-ecosystems, because ecological/human-health risks may arise from polycyclic-aromatic-hydrocarbons (PAHs) and nitrogen-PAHs presence in aquatic-environments, particularly sediments, where they partition. Despite this, sediment-PAHs/N-PAHs have not been repo...

Many publications on contaminant bioavailability in soils often state that the use of total contaminant concentrations in risk assessment is an overly conservative approach. Such conservatism makes traditional risk assessment approaches and contaminated land decision-making expensive. The risk-based approach to contaminated land management strives...

Bioavailability estimates the actual internal uptake or absorption of contaminants that enter the body (internal dose) and helps in providing a more accurate estimation of the human risks than the usage of total concentration. This is important for exposure assessment for children in relation to their hand-to-mouth activities. For example significa...

This study investigated the impact of spent brewery grains and spent mushroom compost on the development of phenanthrene biodegradation in soil. Two aspects were considered: (i) the influence of increasing waste-to-soil ratios (1:10, 1:5, 1:2, 1:1 & 2:1) and (ii) the impact of soil-PAH contact time (1–100 d). Biodegradation was quantified by measur...

Biodegradable chemicals may become persistent due to reductions in their bioavailability thereby impacting on the rate and extent of biodegradation in soils and sediments. This chapter examines this – commonly neglected – contradictory face of persistence assessments from the light of the latest advancements in bioavailability science. They include...

The impact of whole digestate (WD) and its fractions (solid [SD] and liquid [LD]) on ¹⁴C-phenanthrene mineralization in soil over 90 d contact time was investigated. The ¹⁴C-phenanthrene spiked soil was aged for 1, 30, 60 and 90 d. Analysis of water-soluble nitrogen, phosphorus, total (organic and inorganic) carbon, and quantitative bacterial count...

Increasing our understanding of the bioavailable fractions of polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) in an aquatic environment is important for the assessment of the environmental and human health risks posed by PACs. More importantly, the behaviour of polar polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (polar PAHs), which are metabolites of legacy PAHs, are yet...

Improving risk assessment and remediation rests on better understanding of contaminant bioavailability. Despite their strong toxicological attributes, little is known about the partitioning behaviour and bioavailability of polar polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in aquatic environments. The present study provides an insight into the bioavaila...

The interaction between root exudates and soil microbes has been hypothesised as the primary mechanism for the biodegradation of organic pollutants in the rhizosphere. However, the mechanisms governing this loss process are not completely understood. This study aimed to investigate the effect of two important compounds within root exudates (citric...

The impact of digestate and fresh animal manure (with and without ash) on soil fertility, carrot productivity, and metal uptake from soil to carrot was studied. Ash might contain high concentrations of metals. Since the impact of fiber and whole digestate with ash, on plant growth and metal uptake, remains unclear, their suitability as alternatives...

While bioenergy generation represents a step towards sustainability, residues and by-products are generated as a result of this process. In order to take the next step and ‘close the loop’ on the generated residues, resource recovery from these materials is required. In this chapter we will focus on the use of blends of biomass ash and anaerobic di...

The gastrointestinal mobilization and oral bioaccessibility of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) nonextractable residues (NERs) from soils remain unexplored, including associated incremental lifetime cancer risks. This study investigated the gastrointestinal mobilization of PAHs and their NERs from contrasting soils, using a physiologically bas...

A number of policy mechanisms have driven the development of a circular economy in organic waste management. This chapter explores the journey of organic wastes from a waste management problem to a renewable energy solution, and then looks to their future as a viable market alternative to conventional inorganic fertilisers. This transition reflects...

While bioenergy generation represents a step towards sustainability, residues and by-products are generated as a result of this process. In order to take the next step and ‘close the loop’ on the generated residues, resource recovery from these materials is required. In this chapter we will focus on the use of blends of biomass ash and anaerobic di...

The Chinese Government is working to establish an effective framework in managing soil contamination. Heavy metal contamination is key to the discussion about soil quality, health and remediation in China. Soil heavy metal contamination in China is briefly reviewed and the concepts of background values and standards discussed. The importance of con...

Knowledge about polar derivatives of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soils is limited despite the extensive study of the environmental presence and persistence of non-polar parent PAHs. Polar PAHs have greater potential to be more toxic at low environmental concentrations compared to their homocyclic analogues. For both polar and non-pol...

In many regions of the world, especially in developing countries, river network data are outdated or completely absent, yet such information is critical for supporting important functions such as flood mitigation efforts, land use and transportation planning, and the management of water resources. In this study a new method was developed for deline...

The potential for bioaccumulation and associated genotoxicity of nonextractable residues (NERs) of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs) in long-term contaminated soils have not been investigated. Here we report research in which earthworms, Eisenia fetida, were exposed to a soil containing readily available benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) and highly seque...

Whey permeate and slurry are both from the dairy farm animals while whey is characterised with high acidity the slurry is mildly alkaline, and they are both biodegradable. In this study, a lab-scale partitioned up-flow anaerobic digestion tank was used to achieve a suitable feeding regime for co-fermenting whey permeate and slurry. The partitioned...

Higher soil pH and electrical conductivity (EC) were suspected to result in higher extractability and bioavailability of benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) in soils. In this study, we investigated the influence of pH, EC and ageing on the extractability of B[a]P in two contracting soils (varied largely in soil texture, clay mineralogy and organic carbon conten...

Acidification and drying of digestate are important post-treatment for, respectively, improving nutrient availability and hygiene. These approaches are expected to reduce digestate soil application mass and increase its value. This study compared eleven organic feedstocks under acidogenic and methanogenic conditions as a sustainable approach to imp...

Abstract for the oral presentation for the British Society of Soil Science Early Career Researcher Conference 2019, The Edge, University of Sheffield, 16-17 April 2019.

There is a lack of understanding about the potential for remobilisation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) residues in soils, specifically after the removal of readily available fractions, and the likelihood to cause harm to human and environmental health. Sequential solvent extractions, using butanol (BuOH), dichloromethane/acetone, and me...

Running from 2015 to 2019, the Resource Recovery from Waste (RRfW) programme is a £7m strategic investment by NERC, ESRC and Defra to deliver strategic science in support of a paradigm shift in the recovery of resources from waste, driven by benefits to the environment and human health, rather than economics alone. The end-of-programme brochure ou...

The genotoxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic effects of polar polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (polar PAHs) are believed to surpass those of their parent PAHs; however, their environmental and human health implications have been largely unexplored. Oxygenated PAHs (oxy-PAHs) is a critical class of polar PAHs associated with carcinogenic effects withou...

The environmental and health risks associated with ‘non-extractable’ residues (NERs) of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in soils and their potential for remobilisation remain largely unexplored. In this novel study, sequential solvent extractions were employed to interrogate time-dependent remobilisation of benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) NERs and associat...

The use of organic waste in the bioeconomy has the potential to contribute towards the UK’s strategic goals of clean growth, resource security and reducing use of fossil fuels. While the reduction of avoidable organic waste remains a priority, a number of waste streams are likely to persist and could provide a significant feedstock for the UK bioec...

The fate, impacts and significance of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) non-extractable residues (NERs) in soils remain largely unexplored in risk-based contaminated land management. In this study, 7 different methanolic and non-methanolic alkaline treatments, and the conventional methanolic saponification, were used to extract benzo[a]pyrene (...

The fate and behaviour of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soil is of interest in the risk assessment of contaminated lands and are usually based on determinations of fractions extracted from soil. For decades, either single or sequential solvent extractions have been used to determine PAH extractability in soils; however, there is a lack...

Microbes are susceptible to contaminant effects, and high concentration of chemicals in soil can impact on microbial growth, density, viability and development. The impactof single and binary mixtures ofphenanthrene and its nitrogen-containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon analogues (N-PAHs) on microbial metabolism of 14C-glucose insoilwas measure...

Agents arising from engineering or pharmaceutical industries may induce significant environmental impacts. Particularly, antimicrobials not only act as efficient eliminators of certain microbes but also facilitate the propagation of organisms with antimicrobial resistance, raising critical health issues, e.g., the bloom of multidrug-resistant bacte...

The bioavailability and bioaccessibility of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soil underpin the risk assessment of contaminated land with these contaminants. Despite a significant volume of research conducted in the past few decades, comprehensive understanding of the factors controlling the behaviour of soil PAHs and a set of descriptive...

Exposure to environmental insults generally occurs at low levels, making it challenging to measure bacterial responses to such interactions. Additionally, microbial behaviour and phenotype varies in differing bacterial types or...

Investigations into the beneficial effects of the interaction between plants and soil microorganisms towards bioremediation of contaminated soil has been studied over the past 30 years. This subject has been summarized as the process where organic contaminants can be removed from the soil through the interaction between roots and catabolic microbia...

Achieving food and energy security in a sustainable way poses some of the largest challenges facing society worldwide. The recovery of energy and nutrients from waste offers opportunities to tackle these issues while simultaneously improving waste management – a key concept within ‘circular economy' thinking. The case of Adding Value to Ash and Dig...

Plant-assisted biodegradation can offer a cost-effective and sustainable approach for the bioremediation of PAHs in soil. As such, selecting the most appropriate plant species is important. The potential for plant-assisted biodegradation of complex PAH-diesel mixtures in soil by sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and alfalfa (Medicago sativa) grown as monoc...

The Niger Delta is one of the largest oil producing regions of the world. Large numbers and volumes of oil spills have been reported in this region. What has not been quantified is the putative exposure of humans and/or the environment to this hydrocarbon pollution. In this novel study, advanced geostatistical techniques were applied to an extensiv...

This study investigated the use of a hydrophobic resin, amberlite XAD, as a tool for assessing the biodegradation potential of 14C-phenanthene in soil. The method was optimised in terms of soil/XAD ratio, shaking, extraction time and eluting solvent. The most effective method was then tested on selected XADs, and the performance compared with cyclo...

In this study, the indigenous microbial mineralisation of 14C-phenanthrene in seven background soils (four Norwegian woodland and three UK (two grassland and one woodland)) was investigated. ∑PAHs ranged from 16.39 – 285.54 ng g-1 dw soil. Lag phases (time before 14C-phenanthrene mineralisation reached 5%) were longer in all of the Norwegian soils...

The aim of this study was to investigate the biodegradation of phenanthrene in five Antarctic soils over 150 days at various temperatures and under slurry conditions. The development of catabolic activity was measured over time (1, 30, 60, 150 days) by the addition of 14C-phenanthrene and measuring changes in the lag phases, rates and extents of 14...

PurposeSewage sludge samples from a water treatment plant in Nigeria were subjected to an in-vessel composting (using sawdust as a bulking agent) and thermal sludge processing to improve its quality for agricultural applications. Methods Treated samples were analyzed for physicochemical and microbiological properties using standard analytical and a...

Over-usage of antibiotics leads to the widespread induction of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Developing an approach to allow real-time monitoring and fast prediction of ARGs dynamics in clinical or environmental samples has become an urgent matter. Vibrational spectroscopy is potentially an ideal technique towards the characterization of the...

In this study, the thermal stability of a wood shaving biochar (WS, 650 °C), a chicken litter biochar (CL, 550 °C) and an activated carbon (AC, 1100 °C) were evaluated by combustion at 375 °C for 24 h to remove the labile non-carbonized organic matter. Results showed that WS and CL biochars were not thermally stable and can lose most of the organic...

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are amongst the most common ubiquitous anthropogenic pollutants of terrestrial ecosystems. There are currently multiple sources of PAHs in Nigeria and land use activities have been shown to alter the composition of PAHs and in some cases increase the fractions of carcinogenic and recalcitrant components. This...

Pyrogenic carbon (PyC), including soil native PyC and engineered PyC (biochars), is increasingly being recognized for its potential role as a low-cost immobilizer of contaminants in soils. Published reviews on the role of soil native PyC as a sorbent in soils have so far focused mainly on organic contaminants and paid little or no attention to inor...

Lead (Pb) is a widespread heavy metal which is harmful to human health, especially to young children. To provide a human health risk assessment that is more relevant to real conditions, Pb bioavailability in soils is increasingly employed in the assessment procedure. Both in vivo and in vitro measurements for lead bioavailability are available. In...

It is now acknowledged that aromatic hydrocarbons present in contaminated soils occur in mixtures. The effect of single, binary and quinary mixtures of phenanthrene and selected nitrogen-containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (N-PAHs) were investigated on the survival, growth and behavioural index of earthworms (Eisenia fetida) over a 21-day i...

Pyrogenic carbon (PyC), the combustion residues of fossil fuel and biomass, is a versatile soil fraction active in biogeochemical processes. In this study, the chemo-thermal oxidation method (CTO-375) was applied to investigate the content and distribution of PyC in 30 Australian agricultural, pastoral, bushland and parkland soil with various soil...

Microbes are susceptible to contaminant effects, and high concentrations of chemical in soil can impact on microbial growth, density, viability and development. As a result of relative sensitivity of microbes to contaminants, toxicity data are important in determining critical loads or safe levels for contaminants in soil. Therefore the aim of this...

Biochar, like most other adsorbents, is a carbonaceous material, which is formed from the combustion of plant materials, in low-zero oxygen conditions and results in a material, which has the capacity to sorb chemicals onto its surfaces. Currently, research is being carried out to investigate the relevance of biochar in improving the soil ecosystem...

Bioavailability is recognised as being important in the study of biodegradation and ecotoxicity of organic contaminants in soils and sediments. The bioavailability of organic contaminants is controlled by biological, chemical and physical interactions and, as a result, will differ between soil types and biota. Over the last 30 years, numerous inves...

Background: There are many uncertainties concerning variations in benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) soil guidelines protecting human health based on carcinogenic data obtained in animal studies. Although swine is recognised as being much more representative of the human child in terms of body size, gut physiology and genetic profile the rat/mice model is comm...

The presence of black carbon (BC) in soil drastically reduced the mineralization of C-phenanthrene and its extractability by hydroxylpropyl- -cyclodextrin (HPCD) extractions. This study also tested the effects of pH on the HPCD extraction of C-phenanthrene in soils with BC. Extractions using 60 mM HPCD solutions prepared in deionized water (pH 5.89...

The potential for biotransformation of weathered hydrocarbon residues in soils collected from two commercial oil refinery sites (Soil A and B) was studied in microcosm experiments. Soil A has previously been subjected to on-site bioremediation and it was believed that no further degradation was possible while soil B has not been subjected to any tr...

This study investigated the impact of two different wood biochars (BioC1 and BioC2) on the extractability and biodegradation of C-naphthalene in soil. Both biochars had contrasting properties due to difference in feedstocks and pyrolytic conditions (450–500 C and 900–1000 C, designated as BioC1 and BioC2, respectively). This study investigated effe...

The effect of rhizosphere soil or root tissues amendments on the microbial mineralisation of hydrocarbons in soil slurry by the indigenous microbial communities has been investigated. In this study, rhizosphere soil and root tissues of reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea), channel grass (Vallisneria spiralis), blackberry (Rubus fructicosus) and...

In this study, the impact of different types of biochar and biochar ratios on the anaerobic digestion of citrus peel waste was investigated. Citrus peel has an inhibitory effect on anaerobic digestion. The presence of biochar had two effects: a reduction in the length of the lag phase and greater production of methane relative to citrus peel waste...

Publicly available data can potentially examine the relationship between environmental exposure and public health, however, it has not yet been widely applied. Arsenic is of environmental concern, and previous studies mathematically parameterized exposure duration to create a link between duration of exposure and increase in risk. However, since th...

Defining the precise clean-up goals for lead (Pb) contaminated sites requires site-specific information on relative bioavailability data (RBA). While in vivo measurement is reliable but resource insensitive, in vitro approaches promise to provide high-throughput RBA predictions. One challenge on using in vitro bioaccessibility (BAc) to predict in v...

The effect of flavonoids (flavone, morin hydrate and 3-hydroxyflavone)on the microbial mineralisation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soil slurry by the indigenous microbial communities has been investigated. The rates and extents of 14C–PAHs (14C–naphthalene, 14C–phenanthrene and 14C–pyrene)mineralisation in artificially spiked soils...

The process of high solid anaerobic digestions (HSAD) was developed to reduce water usage, increase organic loading rate (OLR), reduce nutrient loss in digestate and avoid or decrease the dewatering of digestate. However, the operation of HSAD is currently constrained by low rates and extents of methane production high operational costs. Several pu...

The impacts of phenanthrene and its nitrogen-containing analogues (N-PAHs) on seedling emergence and plant biomass of two terrestrial plant species, Lactuca sativa (lettuce) and Lolium perenne (rye grass), were investigated in soil over a 21-day exposure period. The data over 0-90-day soil-chemical contact time revealed that seedling emergence and...

In this study, effects of an increase in concentration of fullerene-C60, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) or fullerene soot (FS) on overall microbial activity was investigated over a 21 d incubation period. Microbial utilisation of 14C-glucose and uptake of 14C-glucose into the microbial biomass was in...

The bioavailability of organic chemicals in soil and sediment is an important area of scientific investigation by environmental scientists, but it is still poorly understood by regulators and industry working in the environmental sector. Regulators are starting to consider bioavailability within retrospective risk assessment frameworks for organic...

Nitrogen- heterocyclic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (N-PAHs) are ubiquitous constituents of contaminated sites in which their high water solubility and lower k ow values imply greater mobility and impacts. Biodegradation is a major route of loss for organic contaminants in soil. In this study, microbial degradation was investigated in soil arti...

This study investigated the impact of different types of carbon nanomaterials (CNMs) namely C60, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and fullerene soot on the catabolism of 14C- phenanthrene in soil by indigenous microorganisms. Different concentrations (0%, 0.01%, 0.1% and 1%) of the different CNMs were blended with soil spiked with 50 mg kg-1 o...

The effect of hydroxycinnamic acids (caffeic, ferulic and p-coumaric acids) on the microbial mineralisation of phenanthrene in soil slurry by the indigenous microbial community has been investigated. The rate and extent of 14C–phenanthrenemineralisation in artificially spiked soils were monitored in the absence of hydroxycinnamic acids and presence...