Microbial phenol degradation of organic compounds in natural systems: Temperature-inhibition relationships
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Frank Eismann; Peter Kuschek; Ulrich Stottmeister
- Source
- Environmental Science and Pollution Research. 4:203-207
- Subject
- Pollutant
Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
Kinetics
Substrate (chemistry)
General Medicine
Contamination
Pollution
chemistry.chemical_compound
chemistry
Environmental chemistry
Soil water
Environmental Chemistry
Phenol
Ecotoxicology
Groundwater
- Language
- ISSN
- 1614-7499
0944-1344
The combined influence of high phenol concentrations and low temperatures on aerobic and anaerobic phenol degradation kinetics was investigated in microbial enrichment cultures to evaluate temperature-inhibition relationships with respect to the ambient conditions in polluted habitats. The inhibition of microbial phenol degradation by excess substrate was found to be temperature-dependent. Substrate inhibition was intensified when temperatures were lower. This results in an elevated temperature sensitivity of phenol degradation at inhibitory substrate concentrations. The synergistic amplification of substrate inhibition at low temperatures may help to explain the limited self-purification potential of contaminated habitats such as soils, sediments and groundwater aquifers where high pollutant concentrations and low temperatures prevail.