Effect of carbon sources and of sulfate on microbial arsenic mobilization in sediments of West Bengal, India.

ABSTRACT

Arsenic (As) dissolution from sediments into groundwater in the Bengal Delta/West India was investigated. Two experimental sites were choosen with contrasting As concentrations in shallow groundwater. Apparently patches of high-As and low-As sediments occured in close neigbourhood. A fast As mobilization with lactate or ethanol as carbon sources and sulfate as an electron acceptor and a possible influence of indigenous flora because of higher As amounts and an increasing total cell count was observed over a peroid of 110 days. Sucrose was a less suitable carbon source. Inoculation of an arsenate-reducing Pseudomonas putida WB, that was isolated from the sediments did not improve arsenic mobilization. Maximal arsenic concentrations up to 160µg/l were leached out from sediment columns with lactate or ethanol+sulfate in the water at natural groundwater flow, but the majority of the As remained in the sandy sediments. Some correlation of arsenic with Fe, but not with Mn dissolution seems to exist.