Water, Air, and Soil Pollution

, Volume 178, Issue 1–4, pp 169–178 | Cite as

Using Sterols to Detect Pig Slurry Contribution to Soil Organic Matter

  • Emilie Jardé
  • Gérard Gruau
  • Laurence Mansuy-Huault
  • Pascal Peu
  • José Martinez
Article
First Online:
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Accepted:

Abstract

Samples of pig slurry, as well as dairy and poultry manures collected in Brittany (western France) were analysed to test the ability of sterol profiles to provide a fingerprint of pig slurry contribution to soil organic matter. The data show that the 5β-stanol, known as coprostanol, is the most abundant sterol present in pig slurry, whereas this compound occurs only in minor amounts in both poultry and dairy manures. Moreover, systematic variations of (campesterol + sitosterol)/cholesterol (i.e., C28+29/C27) and (coprostanol + epi-coprostanol)/cholesterol (i.e., 5β/C27) ratios allow to discriminate clearly pig slurry from poultry and dairy manures. The robustness of the pig slurry “sterol fingerprint” was tested by analysing the sterol profiles of soil samples from an experimental field that had received a massive pig slurry input between 10 to 14 years ago. The results indicate that the specific sterol profile of pig slurry is conservative once the slurry has been incorporated into the soil. In particular, the diagnostic 5β/C27 ratio proves to be constant with time in soils having received pig slurry application, even 10 years after the end of the application. The “sterol fingerprint” of pig slurry is thus sufficiently distinctive from dairy and poultry manures, and also sufficiently time-resistant, to be of diagnostic value in determining whether a soil sample was once contaminated by pig slurry.

Keywords

organic matter pig slurry biomarker soil sterol soil and water pollution intensive agriculture 
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Copyright information

© Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2006

Authors and Affiliations

  • Emilie Jardé
    • 1
    • 2
  • Gérard Gruau
    • 1
  • Laurence Mansuy-Huault
    • 2
  • Pascal Peu
    • 3
  • José Martinez
    • 3
  1. 1.CAREN, UMR CNRS 6118 Geosciences Rennes, Campus de BeaulieuRennes CedexFrance
  2. 2.G2R, CNRS-Université de NancyVandoeuvre-les-Nancy CedexFrance
  3. 3.CEMAGREF, UR Gestion environnementale et traitement biologique des déchetsRennes CedexFrance

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