During phase P-I, the development of bacteria populations in
both the BS and BSBA treatments (Fig. 1a) differed significantly
(variance analysis, p < 0.05) from that of fungi (Fig. 1b). In general,
the number of bacteria decreased sharply during phase P-I, while
the number of fungi increased. The tendency of fungi to increase in
concentration as soon as soil is contaminated with diesel oil has
been reported previously (Gestel et al., 2003). A sharp decrease in
pH values was also observed during P-I.