Monitoring In Situ Microbial Growth and Decay in Soil Column Experiments by Induced Polarization
Yalin Song, Xiaoqing Shi, A. Revil, Xueyuan Kang
Abstract
Abstract Real‐time monitoring of the microbial activity in porous media faces considerable challenges because conventional analytical procedures are intrusive. Induced polarization has shown promises as a non‐intrusive monitoring approach for such processes. However, quantitative analysis of soil column experiments to show how IP‐based parameters can be related to the density of bacteria is still lacking. The evolution of bacterial density and the induced polarization was performed in soil‐packed column experiments using Pseudomonas aeruginosa O1. A quantitative relationship between the quadrature conductivity and the bacterial density was established and further applied to assess the bacterial growth and decay, and infer the Monod kinetic parameters. The Monod kinetic parameters inferred from the column experiments mimicking field conditions were different to those obtained from the batch experiments.