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Sources of Heavy Metals and Their Long-term Effects on Microbial C, N and P Relationships in Soil

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Abstract

The effects of heavy metals (Zn, Pb, and Cu) on microbial biomass C, N, and P were assessed in soils contaminated over a wide range by sewage sludge, exhaust dust deposition of a lead factory and river sediments of mining residues. Microbial biomass C, N, and P did not show any clear heavy metal effect related to soil dry weight. Also the ratios of microbial biomass C/N and biomass C/P remained unaffected by heavy metals. The ratios of microbial biomass C/soil organic C, biomass N/total N, and biomass P/total P were all negatively affected by increasing concentrations of Zn, Pb, and Cu as detected by a source-specific analysis of covariance using the different heavy metal fractions as covariate. Negative effects of Zn on the ratios microbial biomass C/soil organic C and biomass N/total N increased with increasing metal solubility in the order: (X-ray fluorescence analysis) XFA-detectable <HNO3 <EDTA ≪NH4NO3-extractable Zn. The Zn effects on the microbial biomass N/total N were always smaller than those on the microbial biomass C/soil organic C ratio. The same was true for all effects of the Pb and Cu fractions on these two ratios. For this reason, the deposition of highly soluble Zn and Pb by exhaust dust has the most negative effects, although sediments contained the maximum total burden of Zn and Pb. All fractions of Zn, Pb, and Cu had similar negative effects on the microbial biomass P/total P ratio, although the NH4NO3-extractable fraction again showed the most pronounced effects.

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Acknowledgements

Khalid Saifullah Khan thanks the DAAD for a travel grant. Krishan Chander thanks the Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation for financial support. We thank Gabriele Dormann, Angelika Reitz, Karin Schmidt and Ingrid Ostermeyer for technical assistance. We thank the late Prof. Dr. Brunk Meyer for many useful discussions.

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Author notes

  1. Khalid Saifullah Khan

    Present address: Department of Soil Science, University of Arid Agriculture, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

  2. Krishan Chander

    Present address: Department of Microbiology, Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Soil Biology and Plant Nutrition, University of Kassel, Nordbahnhofstr. 1a, 37213, Witzenhausen, Germany

    Khalid Saifullah Khan, Krishan Chander & Rainer Georg Joergensen

  2. Institute of Geochemistry, University of Göttingen, Goldschmidtstr. 1, 37077, Göttingen, Germany

    Gerald Hartmann

  3. Institute of Soil Science and Forest Nutrition, University of Göttingen, Büsgenweg 2, 37077, Göttingen, Germany

    Norbert Lamersdorf

Authors
  1. Khalid Saifullah Khan
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  2. Krishan Chander
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  3. Gerald Hartmann
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  4. Norbert Lamersdorf
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  5. Rainer Georg Joergensen
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Correspondence to Rainer Georg Joergensen.

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Khan, K.S., Chander, K., Hartmann, G. et al. Sources of Heavy Metals and Their Long-term Effects on Microbial C, N and P Relationships in Soil. Water Air Soil Pollut 181, 225–234 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-006-9295-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-006-9295-7

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