A bacterium strain, which prove to be highly effective in phenol degrading, was isolated from soil contaminated with oil in Jingbian oilfield of Northern Shaanxi by using enrichment culture method with phenol as a sole carbon source.The bacterium was named ad049 and identified as Rhodococcus on the basis of the morphological characterizations, physiological and biochemical identification, and alignment analysis of the 16S rDNA sequence. Effects of inoculation quantity of ad049, pH, temperature, and concentration of phenol as a substrate on bacterial growth and the efficiency of ad049 on phenol degradation were also investigated by shaker culture method, and dehydrogenase and catechol dioxygenase were determined as well. Results showed that the ad049 had a strong biodegradation capability for phenol. It degraded 99% of the phenol in a concentration of 1000 mg / L in 24 hours under the incubating condition of 30 益 , pH 8, and 5% of ad049 inoculation. The degradation process could be described with zero order kinetics equation with the k 0 and R 2 values of 41郾 51and 0.96, respectively. The degradation of phenol by ad049 might be achieved largely by 1,2鄄dioxygenase for ortho ring opening of benzene, and partly by catechol 2,3鄄dioxygenase for meta鄄cleavage.
To investigate the impacts of crude oil pollution on the soil microbial community, and estimate the potential for crude oil degradation by indigenous microbial consortia, we examined the soil microbial community structure, metabolic characteristics and functional diversity of crude oil鄄contaminated soil collected in the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi, using plate counts and the Biolog Eco plate method. The results showed that the responses of soil microbes to crude oil pollution stress varied greatly. The abundance of bacteria and fungi in crude oil鄄contaminated soil were about one order of magnitude higher than in the uncontaminated soil, while the abundance of actinomycetes was significantly lower in polluted soil than in uncontaminated soil (P<0.01). The number of bacteria in crude oil鄄contaminated soil was 10 7 CFU / g, and the proportion of bacteria reached 99.8%-99.9% of all microbes. This indicated that majority of the crude oil biodegradation was the result of bacterial activity in collaboration with fungi rather than actinomycetes. The microbial activity of