Endophytic Bacteria for Toxicity Resistance and Growth Promotion in Leachate Treatment
Department
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Major
Environmental Engineering
Research Advisor
Burken, Joel G. (Joel Gerard)
Westenberg, David J.
Advisor's Department
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Second Advisor's Department
Biological Sciences
Funding Source
Ontario Ministry of Environment
Abstract
Recent research has shown that endophytic bacteria have growth benefits for some tree species. If the benefits help the trees to overcome contaminant stress, this could help the trees remediate groundwater and soil faster as well as to produce more biomass which can be beneficial, for example, as wood, pulp, or feedstock for biofuels. In this experiment, cuttings from three different popular tree hybrids were grown and watered with landfill leachate in varying concentrations in order to observe growth trends of the plants when inoculated with one of three different strains of potentially helpful bacteria. Two bacteria types, Methylobacterium populi (MP) and Enterobacter 638 (E6), were shown to improve overall growth weight the most. Mycobacterium vanballenii (MV) didn’t improve growth weights compared to the control group. Data also showed higher concentrations of leachate may increase plants’ susceptibility to spider mite damage while MV and E6 may help protect against it.
Biography
Cailie Carlile is a junior in Environmental Engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology. She attended the Missouri Academy of Science, Mathematics and Computing at Northwest Missouri State University for her last two years of high school and University of MO-KC for one year before transferring to Missouri S&T in 2008. Cailie is a member of Chi Epsilon and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies as well as the United States Parachute Association. Her current research in phytoremediation is being done under Dr. Joel Burken and her goal is to better understand how contaminants and toxins could be biologically degraded efficiently and inexpensively. This summer, Cailie will be participating in an internship as Brookhaven National Laboratory. Her future plans after obtaining a bachelor’s degree are to pursue a master’s degree in Environmental Engineering at Missouri S&T and to continue research.
Research Category
Engineering
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Document Type
Poster
Location
Upper Atrium/Hallway
Presentation Date
07 Apr 2010, 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Endophytic Bacteria for Toxicity Resistance and Growth Promotion in Leachate Treatment
Upper Atrium/Hallway
Recent research has shown that endophytic bacteria have growth benefits for some tree species. If the benefits help the trees to overcome contaminant stress, this could help the trees remediate groundwater and soil faster as well as to produce more biomass which can be beneficial, for example, as wood, pulp, or feedstock for biofuels. In this experiment, cuttings from three different popular tree hybrids were grown and watered with landfill leachate in varying concentrations in order to observe growth trends of the plants when inoculated with one of three different strains of potentially helpful bacteria. Two bacteria types, Methylobacterium populi (MP) and Enterobacter 638 (E6), were shown to improve overall growth weight the most. Mycobacterium vanballenii (MV) didn’t improve growth weights compared to the control group. Data also showed higher concentrations of leachate may increase plants’ susceptibility to spider mite damage while MV and E6 may help protect against it.
