Project Summary

Title:  Biofilm-induced changes of soil organic matter structure and the resulting impact on the bioavailability of sorbed 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene and its amine metabolites 

Period: 1999-2003

Goals: The goals of this research are to 1) characterize SOM structure as a function of (a) sorbed density, and (b) exposure to various solution chemistries; 2) quantify the dependence of desorption and biotransformation kinetics of SOM-bound NATs on SOM structure; and 3) quantify differences in NAT biotransformation kinetics in systems where the only system variable is the potential for biofilm formation. 

Our goals for the future are to obtain detailed knowledge about adsorption kinetics of trinitrotoluene, aminodinitrotoluene, diaminonitrotoluene, and triaminotoluene onto soil humic acid by using state of the art imaging chemical analysis instrumentation and to relate the observed surface chemistry to microbial transformation rates of TNT.