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Impact of trace metal contamination and in situ remediation on microbial diversity and respiratory activity of heavily polluted Kastanozems

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Abstract

Agriculturally used soils (Kastanozems) of experimental fields in the Mashavera Valley in southeast Georgia show various degrees of trace metal contamination (Cd, Cu, and Zn). Therefore, one part of the soils was remediated with iron grit. The effects of the remediation in comparison to nonremediated soils on microbial diversity and activity were analyzed with the single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) and microbial respiratory activity. All topsoils were characterized by neutral to weakly alkaline pH values, high contents of Corg, and clay. The total contents ranged between 0.46 and 5.89 mg kg−1 for Cd, between 1.19 and 81.4 mg kg−1 for Cu, and between 210 and 976 mg kg−1 for Zn. Basal respiration was significantly (p ≤ 0.05) lower in the heavily contaminated soils as compared to the weakly contaminated and control soils. Phylogenetic analyses of the DNA bands found 40 operational taxonomic units with ≥98 % sequence identity. The phylum Acidobacteria dominated with 57.7 %. Other groups detected were Proteobacteria (α (2.8 %), β (8.5 %), γ (14.1 %), δ (4.2 %)), Bacteroidetes (5.6 %), Firmicutes (4.2 %), Actinobacteria (1.4 %), and Nitrospira (1.4 %). Furthermore, the results of the SSCP analysis and the Shannon–Weaver indices suggested that microbial diversity was lower in the heavily contaminated soils, but DNA band profiles of the remediated soils were in higher number than in the untreated soils. Due to the remediation, a recovery of the microbial diversity seems attainable.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Volkswagen Foundation for financing the study. We are grateful to our Georgian colleagues Besik Kalandadze, Levan Navrozashvili, and Tengiz Urushadze from the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, our colleagues Kristina Kampmann, Rita Geißler-Plaum, Irina Kramer, Claudia Kammann, Leonard Böhm, and Sylvie Drahorad from the Justus Liebig University and Simon Berkowicz from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for their support. We also thank the reviewers for thoroughly reviewing our manuscript and for their helpful comments.

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  1. Stefan Ratering

    Present address: Fraunhofer Institut für Silicatforschung (ISC), Fraunhofer-Projektgruppe für Wertstoffkreisläufe und Ressourcenstrategie IWKS, Alzenau/Hanau, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Soil Science and Soil Conservation, Research Center for Biosystems, Land Use and Nutrition (IFZ), Justus Liebig University, 35392, Giessen, Germany

    Hülya Kaplan, Thomas Hanauer & Peter Felix-Henningsen

  2. Institute of Applied Microbiology, Research Center for Biosystems, Land Use and Nutrition (IFZ), Justus Liebig University, 35392, Giessen, Germany

    Stefan Ratering & Sylvia Schnell

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  1. Hülya Kaplan
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Correspondence to Hülya Kaplan.

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Kaplan, H., Ratering, S., Hanauer, T. et al. Impact of trace metal contamination and in situ remediation on microbial diversity and respiratory activity of heavily polluted Kastanozems. Biol Fertil Soils 50, 735–744 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-013-0890-7

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