METHOD TO DETECT EFFICIENCY OF BIODEGRADATION OF OIL HYDROCARBONS IN NATIVE AND CONTAMINATED SOILS Russian patent published in 2013 - IPC G01N33/24 G01N33/00 

FIELD: biotechnologies.

SUBSTANCE: invention may be used to determine hydrocarbon-degrading potential of soil microbiota. The method consists in representative sampling of native or pollutant-contaminated soil. To assess hydrocarbon-oxidising activity of soil microbiota: 1) a sample of tested soil is placed into a closed reservoir, within a certain period of time quantity of metabolic carbon dioxide is fixed before and after introduction of oil hydrocarbons, 2) characteristics are measured of isotopic composition of carbon of metabolic carbon dioxide before and after introduction of a test substrate, 3) material-isotopic balance is carried out to detection of quantity of carbon dioxide carbon, included due to mineralisation of a soil organic substance and oil hydrocarbons, 4) using speed of microbial degradation of oil, long-term forecasting is carried out for microbial consumption of oil by soil microbiota for the period of positive annual temperatures of the analysed region.

EFFECT: improved information value and faster detection.

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