No abstract

There has been increasing interest in enhancing natural attenuation of munitions-contaminated soils. Present study reports the effect of increasing soil organic matter content on fate and mobility of trinitrotoluene (TNT) and metabolites in soil columns. This study was performed using 30-cm-long columns containing a top 5 cm of contaminated soil as a source layer and an uncontaminated soil (25 cm) adjusted to 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 3.0% organic carbon (OC) content using compost. Contaminated soil layer was fortified with uniformly ring-labeled (14)C-trinitrotoluene (TNT) or 2,4-dinitrotoluene (DNT); in total there were 8 treatments. Columns were leached with synthetic rain water under unsaturated flow conditions in downside up direction. There was significant increase in the retention of both (14)C-TNT and (14)C-DNT in soils with increasing soil OC content and in 3.0% soil OC content column < 1% TNT/DNT was recovered in the leachate. Further, degradation of TNT and metabolites from contaminated soil was significantly increased and resulted in greater soil-bound residues. Formation of monoamino-dinitrotoluene (ADNTs), diamino-mononitrotoluene (DANTs) and monoamino-mononitrotoluene (ANTs) metabolites was greatly enhanced with increase in OC content of soils. Study suggests that increasing OC content of contaminated soil to 3.0% significantly enhanced the reduction of nitroaromatics to more polar amine metabolites and the formation of soil-bound residues.

Clay minerals in soils control the sorption and mobility of nitroaromatics in munitions contaminated soils. Therefore, effect of exchangeable cations (NH4+ , K+, Ca2+, and Al3+) on sorption-desorption of trinitrotoluene (TNT) was studied in two reference soils viz sandy loam and silty clay. Compared to control soils, K+ ion saturation significantly increased TNT sorption in both the soils, while other cations decreased TNT sorption. Effect of K+ saturation on sorption of TNT was more pronounced in organic matter poor sandy loam soil (seven times) then silty clay (two times). Desorption followed the reverse trend and greater amounts of sorbed TNT were retained in the K+ saturated soils.

Trinitrotoluene (TNT), a nitroaromatics, is a major pollutant in explosive contaminated soils. Present study reports the effect of initial concentration of TNT on its degradation kinetics in soils. Soils from two contaminated sites viz. Clausthal and Elsnig, Germany, were mixed with an uncontaminated reference soil to get different initial concentrations (mg/kg) viz Clausthal-1 (54.29), Clausthal-2 (30.86), Clausthal-3 (7.05) Elsnig-1 (879.67), Elsnig-2 (86.43); Elsnig-3 (8.16) and Elsnig-4 (0.99) and were spiked with ring UL-(14)C-TNT (100KBq/50g soil). Except Elsnig-1 and Elsnig-2 soils, TNT degraded at same rate in all the soils. Higher persistence of TNT in Elsnig-1 and Elsnig-2 soils appears to be due to higher initial concentrations of nitroaromatics which may be toxic to soil microorganisms. 2-Amino-4,6-dinitrotoluene (2-ADNT) and 4-amino-2,6-dinitrotoluene (4-ADNT) were recovered as major metabolites of TNT. Distribution of bound (14)C-activity in different soil organic matter (SOM) fractions (humic acid, fulvic acid and humin) was assayed by alkali extraction of solvent extracted Clausthal-1 and Elsnig-1 soils. Results indicate that humic acid accounted for maximum bound activity followed by fulvic acid and humin fractions. Expressing (14)C-activity bound/unit weight of organic carbon content of SOM fractions showed that 3 times more (14)C-activity was bound to Elsnig humic acid than Clausthal humic acid. Similarly, activity associated with Elsnig fulvic acid was 7 times higher than that of Clausthal fulvic acid suggesting that chemical nature of SOM fractions plays a significant role in binding of contaminants.