Thermal remediation effects on the microbial community of a tropical soil contaminated by hydrocarbons

• Grant number: 20/08164-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2020
• End date: June 30, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Sanitary Engineering - Environmental Sanitation
• Principal Investigator: Cristina Rossi Nakayama
• Grantee: Daniel di Pace Penna Soares
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Ambientais, Químicas e Farmacêuticas (ICAQF). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Diadema. Diadema , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Contaminated areas are a constant problem in our society and several strategies can be applied in their remediation. Examples of these techniques include bioremediation, which uses biological processes to remove contaminants and is frequently applied, and thermal remediation, on the rise in Brazil, which promotes soil heating to volatilize and separate contaminants. The influence of thermal remediation on soil microbiota is still poorly known in tropical environments and this knowledge helps to plan remediation strategies and decision making for the management of contaminated areas. The objective of this study is to compare the composition of the microbial community of soil samples contaminated with hydrocarbons submitted to temperatures of 60 and 100oC, simulating temperature ranges of the gradient of thermal remediation with expected impact on the microbiota, but before its complete inactivation. The structure and composition of the microbial community of the soil samples will be analyzed through next generation sequencing of the RNAr 16S gene on the Illumina MiSeq platform and the data used for the estimation of diversity indices, multivariate analyzes and co-occurrence analyzes. The results obtained will allow to test the hypothesis that the composition and diversity of the microbial community will be changed under the influence of the temperatures applied to the soil and to identify possible other environmental factors involved in these changes.