Relative importance of soil properties and heavy metals/metalloids to modulate microbial community and activity at a smelting site

• Published in: Journal of soils and sediments Vol. 21; no. 1; pp. 1 - 12
• Main Authors: Bai, Xue-Ting, Wang, Jichen, Dong, Hailiang, Chen, Jia-Min, Ge, Yuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.01.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Bacteria; bacterial communities; Biological activity; Biomass; China; Community structure; Earth and Environmental Science; Environment; Environmental control; Environmental Physics; Heavy metals; Metalloids; Metals; Microbial activity; microbial biomass; Microbial contamination; Microorganisms; Phosphorus; Sec 1 • Soil Organic Matter Dynamics and Nutrient Cycling • Research Article; Side effects; Smelters; Smelting; Soil contamination; Soil investigations; Soil microorganisms; Soil pollution; Soil properties; Soil Science & Conservation; Soil structure; Soils; total nitrogen; Valproic acid; Variation; Zinc; China; Heavy metals/metalloids; Microbial activity; Soil properties; Microbial biomass; Soil bacterial community
• ISSN: 1439-0108; 1614-7480
• DOI: 10.1007/s11368-020-02743-8

Purpose Heavy metals/metalloids have adverse effects on soil microorganisms, but the underlying environmental controls remain unclear. This study aims to investigate the influences of multiple heavy metal/metalloid contaminations on soil microbial communities, as well as the effects of soil properties. Materials and methods Soil samples were collected from a typical Pb/Zn smelter in China. Ecological drivers including soil properties and heavy metal/metalloid contents were determined to evaluate their effects on soil microbial biomass, activity, and community. Results and discussion heavy metals/metalloids had adverse effects on soil microorganisms, as reflected by significant decreases of soil microbial biomass, activity, and bacterial α-diversity with increased contamination levels. The Mantel test and variation partition analysis (VPA) revealed that heavy metals/metalloids strongly affected the bacterial community structure, while soil properties contribute mostly to the variation of microbial activity. Additionally, the influences of soil properties (e.g., total nitrogen, available phosphorus, pH) on microbial biomass, activity, and α-diversity were significant, and stronger than the effects of heavy metals/metalloids. Notably, the interactions between heavy metals/metalloids and soil properties were significant and could explain 61.08% and 33.05% variation of the bacterial community structure and microbial activity, respectively. Conclusions These findings demonstrate that the overall effects across soil properties and heavy metals/metalloids are interactive, suggesting that evaluation of the effects of heavy metals/metalloids should also take into account the soil properties.