Microbiological impact of atrazine pollution in river sediment and soil

Abstract

Atrazine is a frequently detected pollutant in agricultural soils, groundwater and surface waters. Microbial degradation was confirmed in soils, and recently several atrazine-degrading bacteria have been isolated. Degradation in aquifers, however, is not well understood, and to date, atrazine degraders have not been isolated from water. In the present study, the impact of atrazine was assessed in agricultural soil and river sediment and the composition of the atrazine-degrading bacterial community in the soil and sediment was compared. Atrazine pollution increased the number and diversity of the endogenous atrazine degraders in both environments. Proteobacteria were predominant atrazine degraders in soils, whereas the community of atrazine-degrading bacteria in sediment consisted mostly of coryneforms.