Research on soil catalase activity for petroleum contaminations

The impact of petroleum on soil catalase activity was presented. The loess in Gaoling, silt in campus and loess in Northern Shaanxi were used in the experiment. The Trioflium repens was chosen as the remediation plant. The soil samples were amended with petroleum in the concentration range from 0 to 10000mg/kg, whereas the samples without the plants as controls. Catalase activity was assayed by one of the commonly used permanganimetric methods. As it was demonstrated in the experiment, petroleum have an ability to increase soil catalase activity in appropriate dosage. A petroleum of 7000 mg/kg have the highest catalase activity than other dosage in both phytoremediation areas and unplanted areas. The silt in campus had highest catalase activity than loess in Gaoling and loess in Northern Shaanxi. The variation trend of catalase activity was increased in the phytoremediation areas, but decreased in the unplanted control areas.