Abstract
Due to the emerging environmental issues related to heavy metals, concern about the soil quality of farming lands near manufacturing district is increasing. Investigating the function of soil microorganisms exposed to long-term heavy metal contamination is meaningful and important for agricultural soil utilization. This article studied the potential influence of several heavy metals on microbial biomass, activity, abundance, and community composition in arable soil near industrial estate in Zhuzhou, Hunan province, China. The results showed that soil organic contents (SOC) were significantly positive correlated with heavy metals, whereas dehydrogenase activity (DHA) was greatly depressed by the heavy metal stress. Negative correlation was found between heavy metals and basal soil respiration (BSR), and no correlation was found between heavy metals and microbial biomass content (MBC). The quantitative PCR (QPCR) and polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) analysis could suggest that heavy metal pollution has significantly decreased abundance of bacteria and fungi and also changed their community structure. The results could contribute to evaluate heavy metal pollution level in soil. By combining different environmental parameters, it would promote the better understanding of heavy metal effect on the size, structure, and activity of microbial community in arable soil.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank the editors and reviewers for very helpful comments and suggestions. This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51378190, 50908079, and 51039001), the Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (10JJ7005), the Scholarship Award for Excellent Doctoral Student granted by Ministry of Education.
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None of the authors has any financial or personal relationships that could inappropriately influence or bias the content of the paper.
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Deng, L., Zeng, G., Fan, C. et al. Response of rhizosphere microbial community structure and diversity to heavy metal co-pollution in arable soil. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 99, 8259–8269 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-6662-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-6662-6