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Arsenic ashy soils in Central Slovakia and their chemical and microbiological properties

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Abstract

The aim of the study was to characterize chemical and microbiological properties of soil substrates and fly ash contaminated with arsenic below the active impoundment on six different sites in Zemianske Kostoľany area. The substrate of the impoundment and soils around this site are seriously contaminated with arsenic (93–634 µg/g soil) and mercury (0.29–1.67 µg/g soil) exceeding the indication limits for sanitation. Most of the samples give alkaline pH values and low carbon content, which was increased with increasing humidity. This is closely related with the abundance of microorganisms—non-sporulating anaerobic bacteria dominated in the samples. The growth of r-strategists (80–90%) was recorded especially in the ash samples and in the samples with impurities of ash with elevated contents of arsenic and mercury. Among microscopic fungi dominated Ascomycota (75.8%) with Aspergillus niger and Penicillium chrysogenum var. chrysogenum which belong to the most tolerant species in this environment. The values of metabolic quotient for CO2 (qCO2) indicate that microorganisms are capable to utilize low sources of organic carbon in such damaged soils. However, low values of the substrate availability index indicate reduced potential of microbiota to degrade organic compounds.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the projects under contracts APVV-0344-11, APVV-0866-12, VEGA 1/0321/14, VEGA 1/0482/15 and VEGA 1/0098/14. We thank Dr. Raymond Marshall for checking the English language of manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Ecology, Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Slavomír Čerňanský

  2. Department of Geochemistry, Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Katarína Peťková, Ľubomír Jurkovič & Tomáš Faragó

  3. Department of Soil Science, Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Zuzana Feketeová & Alexandra Šimonovičová

  4. Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Radlinského 9, 812 37, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Tomáš Mackuľak

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  1. Slavomír Čerňanský
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  2. Katarína Peťková
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  3. Zuzana Feketeová
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  4. Ľubomír Jurkovič
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  5. Alexandra Šimonovičová
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  6. Tomáš Faragó
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  7. Tomáš Mackuľak
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Correspondence to Slavomír Čerňanský.

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Čerňanský, S., Peťková, K., Feketeová, Z. et al. Arsenic ashy soils in Central Slovakia and their chemical and microbiological properties. Monatsh Chem 148, 593–600 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00706-017-1928-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00706-017-1928-6

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