PNNL

Abstract

The role of swimming motility on bacterial transport and fate in porous media was evaluated. We present microscopic evidence showing that strong swimming motility reduces attachment of Azotobacter vinelandii cells to silica surfaces. Applying global and cluster statistical analyses to microscopic videos taken under non-flow conditions, wild type, flagellated A. vinelandii strain DJ showed strong swimming ability with an average speed of 13.1 µm/s, DJ77 showed impaired swimming averaged at 8.7 µm/s, and both the non-flagellated JZ52 and chemically treated DJ cells were non-motile. Quantitative analyses of trajectories observed at different distances above the collector of a radial stagnation point flow cell (RSPF) revealed that both swimming and non-swimming cells moved with the flow when at a distance of at least 20 µm from the collector surface. Near the surface, DJ cells showed both horizontal and vertical movement diverging them from reaching surfaces, while chemically treated DJ cells moved with the flow to reach surfaces, suggesting that strong swimming reduced attachment. In agreement with the RSPF results, the deposition rates obtained for two-dimensional multiple-collector micromodels were also lowest for DJ, while DJ77 and JZ52 showed similar values. Strong swimming specifically reduced deposition on the upstream surfaces of the micromodel collectors.