Hydrogen-Based Activity Enhancement in Sediment Cultures and Intact Sediments

Abstract

The potential for hydrogen gas to stimulate microbial respiratory activity in sediments was investigated. Cell elutions from Passaic River (NJ), San Diego Bay (CA), and Marine Harbor sediments were amended with hydrogen gas to evaluate its impact on microbial activity measured by intracellular reduction of 5-cyano-2,3-ditolyl tetrazolium chloride (CTC). The transferability of this approach to sediment slurries and static sediment columns was evaluated based on microbial activity enhancement in Marine Harbor sediments. Results indicate that microbial activity can be increased by a factor of 2–3 at a threshold hydrogen concentration range (0.5 to 1.5 μM). Terminal restriction fragment (T-RF) length polymorphism analysis indicated that the community response to hydrogen resulted in the emergence of previously recessive populations. The causal relationship between hydrogen amendment and an increase in CTC-active cells was most likely due to community structure shifts, as evidenced by the emergence of new T-RFs (19% of total) at hydrogen concentrations above 1.5 μM. No RF was dominant within this emergent group, and no chlororespirers were detected within this group, the latter probably due to the lack of enrichment of halogenated compounds. Nevertheless, the transferability of the observed relationship between hydrogen gas amendment and microbial activity to complex sediment samples suggests a promising remedial strategy for in place contaminated estuarine sediments.