Notice of RetractionMicrobe Agent Enhanced Phytoremediation of PAHs Contaminated Farmland Soil with Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.)

Notice of Retraction

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To improve phytoremediation efficiency of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in farmland soils, a pot experiment was carried out in greenhouse to investigate the effect of different concentration of immobilized microbe agent to the phytoremediation system. Plant biomasses of alfalfa, residual concentration and the number of soils microorganism were determined after 60 days of alfalfa growth. The results showed imposing a lower amount of microbe agents had a less effects on the biomass of ryegrass and higher amount of agents (60 gkg^-1) promoted the biomass significantly (P<;0.05). All the treatment increased the PAHs removal rate and PAHs removal rate increased with the amount of microbe agent increasing, which reached 40.1%, 46.2% and 47.9% respectively. The recorded rates were about 77.4% - 111.9% higher than conventional phytoremediation, which is 22.6%. And the removal rate of 5-6 rings PAHs reached 30%, which increase twice higher than control treatment. The use of microbe agents can significantly degrade the high-ring PAHs compared to the phytoremediation. But the PAHs removal rate was not rapid increased with the amount microbe agent.The number of microorganism increased obviously as well post combined bioremediation and the greatest increased population was PAHs degradable bacteria, which was available for long term PAHs biodegradation. Hence, the study results had demonstrated that combined -bioremediation is a feasible way to treat the PAHs contaminated farmland soil.