Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

McNeal, Karen

Committee Member

Schmitz, Darrel

Committee Member

Han, Fengxiang X.

Date of Degree

8-11-2012

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Geosciences

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Geosciences

Abstract

East Fork Poplar Creek (EFPC) in Oak Ridge, TN was highly contaminated with elemental mercury in the 1950 and 1960. The area is still experiencing the effects of mercury contamination, and researchers are searching for ways to remediate the EFPC. One possible mechanism for bioremediation is the use of biogenic Mn oxides to remove heavy metals from water systems. Native Pseudomonas bacteria species were isolated from EFPC in order to examine biogenic Mn oxides production and bioremediation of Oak Ridge slurries. Pseudomonas isolates did produce Mn oxides which bound to mercury, and mercury bound to organic matter significantly decreased. However, after a significant decrease of dissolved mercury, dissolved mercury was cycled back into the water system on day 10. Given a longer experimental timeline, biogenic Mn oxides have the potential to decrease mercury cycling.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/20201

Comments

Oak Ridge||mercury||bioremediation||Pseudomonas||oxidation||manganese

Download

Share

COinS