U.S. Geological Survey Toxic Substances Hydrology Program--Proceedings
of the Technical Meeting, Colorado Springs, Colorado, September 20-24, 1993,
Water-Resources Investigations Report 94-4015
  
Shifting of Terminal-Electron-Accepting Processes in a Petroleum-Hydrocarbon-Contaminated
Aquifer
by
Don A. Vroblesky (U.S. Geological Survey, Columbia, South Carolina)
and Francis H. Chapelle (U.S. Geological Survey, Columbia, South Carolina)
Abstract
Measurements of dissolved hydrogen and other biologically active solutes
in ground water from a shallow petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated aquifer
indicate that the distribution of microbial terminal electron accepting
processes (TEAP's), such as methanogenesis, sulfate reduction, and ferric-iron
reduction, is highly dynamic in both time and space. Delivery of sulfate
to previously methanogenic zones by infiltrating recharge or lateral transport
can result in a TEAP shift from methanogenesis to sulfate reduction. Conversely,
lack of recharge and consumption of available sulfate can result in a shift
from sulfate reduction to methanogenesis. Temporal shifts between sulfate
and ferric-iron reduction were also observed.
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