Mattes, T. | ESTCP Project ER-201425, 224 pp, 2019

This project demonstrated and validated quantitative, real-time PCR (qPCR) and reverse transcription technologies to enumerate the abundance and functionality of two major groups of VC-oxidizing bacteria. Functional genes used by etheneotrophic and methanotrophic bacteria in the aerobic VC biodegradation pathway were measured in over 100 groundwater samples from 6 VC-contaminated DOD sites. In addition, 134 high-resolution samples from cryogenic soil corings were analyzed to characterize aquifer geochemical conditions and investigate the spatial relationships between functional genes of aerobic and anaerobic VC-degrading bacteria and chlorinated ethene concentrations. Over the course of the project, a biological data set was built to describe changes in the abundance and functionality of etheneotrophs and methanotrophs spatially and temporally at several locations in one or more VC plumes. This demonstration showed that application of environmental molecular diagnostic tools such as qPCR during long-term monitoring of contaminated groundwater yields useful and cost-effective information for site managers interested in better understanding the potential for aerobic natural attenuation of VC at their sites. https://www.serdp-estcp.org/content/download/49466/471608/file/ER-201425%20Final%20Report.pdf