Wednesday, April 2, 2008 : 9:00 a.m.

Tracking Natural Attenuation Pathways Using Bio-Trap Samplers

Greg Davis1, Dora Ogles1 and Kerry Sublette2, (1)Microbial Insights, Inc., (2)University of Tulsa

Bio-Trap samplers are an innovative technology for subsurface sampling, similar in concept to passive diffusion samplers.  Bio-Trap samplers are suspended in existing wells for colonization by the down-hole microbial community.  After incubation, they can be analyzed for microbial biomarkers (DNA, lipids, metabolites), and the colonizing bacteria can be cultured for microbiological analysis.  Bio-Trap samplers offer significant cost savings over sediment sampling, and are less variable and more representative of in situ conditions than groundwater samples.  Bio-Trap samplers can also be “baited” with microbial substrates.  The results of experiments using labeled substrates to determine the pathways of the natural attenuation of benzene, methyl-tert-butyl ether, and trichloroethene will be presented.  Bio-Trap samplers were loaded with 13C-labeled benzene or methyl-tert-butyl ether, and the 13C was detected in the phospholipid fatty acids of the bacteria which grew down-well, providing information on the organisms responsible for natural attenuation in situ.  Bio-Trap samplers loaded with fluoro-trichloroethene, a fluorinated analog of trichloroethene, were used to prove that reductive dechlorination was occurring under natural attenuation conditions

Greg Davis, Microbial Insights, Inc. Greg Davis is president of Microbial Insights, Inc., a biotechnology laboratory located in Rockford Tennessee. Mr. Davis received his B.S. in environmental science in 1996 from the University of Tennessee. Mr. Davis has eleven years of experience in assessing the microbial ecology behind bioremediation. Currently Mr. Davis is focused on the development of panels of molecular based approaches which can be used to facilitate sit design and management decisions.

Dora Ogles, Microbial Insights, Inc. Dora M. Ogles is the Director of the DNA laboratory for Microbial Insights, an environmental company that uses microbiology to assess thousands of samples per year. Since receiving her Bachelors degree in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University in 1996, she has worked on multiple research endeavors using molecular techniques to understand biological processes. Since joining Microbial Insights in 2002, she has helped to establish new molecular techniques for site monitoring.


2008 Ground Water Summit