Biodegradation of herbicide (atrazine) in contaminated soil using various bioprocessed materials Neeru Kadian a, * , Asha Gupta b , Santosh Satya a , Ramesh Kumari Mehta c , Anushree Malik a a Center for Rural Development and Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India b Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guru Jambheshwar University, Hisar, India c Department of Agronomy, CCS Agriculture University, Hisar, India Received 1 November 2006; received in revised form 1 April 2007; accepted 1 June 2007 Available online 10 September 2007 Abstract The concept of biostimulation i.e. enhancing the intrinsic degradation potential of a polluted matrix via the addition of amendments, nutrients, or other limiting factors has been used for a wide variety of xenobiotics. The objective of this research work was to study the degradation of atrazine (25 ppm) in soil amended with biogas slurry, mushroom spent compost, farmyard manure and sodium citrate as one of the chemical amendment. In the lab scale experiments carried out up to 21 days, atrazine in soil was extracted by column method and analyzed by HPLC. The atrazine dissipation was observed to be highest (34%) with biogas slurry. The study on synergistic effect of sodium citrate with farmyard manure showed a negative effect in initial phase, but dissipation gradually increased after 1st week (i.e. 32% degradation after 21 days). Although addition of organic manures has been an integral part of sustainable agriculture practices; the pres- ent findings give a new dimension of it’s utilization for removal of persistent pesticides. Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Atrazine; Biostimulation; Bioprocessed materials (biogas slurry, farmyard manure, mushroom spent compost) 1. Introduction Atrazine [2-chloro-4-(ethylamino)-6-(isopropylamino)- 1,3,5-triazine], a derivative of the s-triazines is a selective herbicide, controlling broadleaf and grassy weeds in corn, sorghum, rangeland, sugarcane, and other crops (Topp et al., 2000). Worldwide, it is second highly consumed her- bicide and in India also annual consumption of atrazine (technical grade) amounts to 340 MT (Central Agriculture Department, India). Due to its high mobility, significant concentrations of atrazine (above maximum contaminant level of 3 lg/l suggested by the US EPA in 1992) have been reported in ground water in different areas (Holden et al., 1992; Wauchope et al., 1992; Solomon et al., 1996; Yassir et al., 1999). Atrazine has been shown to be acutely and chronically toxic to freshwater and estuarine fauna (Ward and Ballantine, 1985). Although, there are different meth- ods (by activated carbon adsorption, microbes or air strip- ping) (Susarla et al., 2002) for removal of atrazine residues from aquatic system, there are no established methods for the vast soil phase. Efforts are therefore needed to develop suitable detoxification techniques for the pesticide-contam- inated agricultural fields. Degradation of atrazine has been reported to be faster in unsterilized soil as compared to sterilized soil indicating the importance of microbial flora i.e. biological degradation (Briagante and Barbieri, 1996). A lot of work has been reported on bioremediation of atrazine using pure culture (Mandelbaum et al., 1995; Radosevich et al., 1995; Fadul- lon et al., 1998; Crawford et al., 2000; Topp et al., 2000; Topp, 2001). Although pure culture application is quite promising detoxification technique but there are instances of failure of bioaugmentation for full-scale field remedia- 0960-8524/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2007.06.064 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 11 2659 1158; fax: +91 11 2659 1121. E-mail address: neerukadian@rediffmail.com (N. Kadian). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Bioresource Technology 99 (2008) 4642–4647