Air pollution and microbial ecology

Babich, H.; Lighthart, Bruce

doi:10.1080/10643387409381619

Cited by 84 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 399 publications

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“…In the 1970s Ruhling and Tyler (1973) studied litter decomposition rate in pine forests under the influence of emissions of Cu, Zn, Cd, Ni and Pb and suggested that litter decomposition rate can be retarded by metals, at least in acidic soils. Babich and Lighthart (1974) have suggested that an accumulation of metals can be toxic to microorganisms and that this phenomenon is responsible for the inhibition of decomposition of organic matter in the heavily polluted forests. Strojan (1978) reported that in heavily polluted regions the organic matter on the forest floor was as high as 213% that of the control.…”

Section: Organic Matter Decompositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Metals Contamination on Soil Microbial Diversity, Enzymatic Activity, Organic Matter Decomposition and Nitrogen Mineralisation (A Review)

Khan¹

2000

Pakistan J. of Biological Sciences

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Soil is home to remarkable diversity of life from microbes to moles and a well-established ecosystem among these different organisms exists. Microorganisms either independently or in association with other organisms are playing very important role in the plant nutrients recycling. Soil metal concentrations above certain limits disrupt this ecosystem and as a result plant nutrient cycling process. Metal contamination in soils cause proportions of some groups of microorganisms to increase than the others. Compared with bacteria certain groups of fungi are less affected by soil metal pollution. Phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) measurements in metal contaminated soils show that within bacterial population, metals are more toxic to gram-positive than gram-negative bacteria. Significant reductions in enzymatic activities occur in soils contaminated with metals and generally metals are more toxic to intra-cellular enzyme activities (e.g. dehydrogenase) than extra-cellular activities (e.g. phosphatase). Similarly, enzymes produced by bacteria are more affected by metal contamination than those produced by fungi. Organic matter decomposition and nitrogen mineralisation, which are carried out by various groups of microorganisms can also be affected by increased metal concentrations in the soils.

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Section: Organic Matter Decompositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Metals Contamination on Soil Microbial Diversity, Enzymatic Activity, Organic Matter Decomposition and Nitrogen Mineralisation (A Review)

Khan¹

2000

Pakistan J. of Biological Sciences

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“…Registered users should request additional copies from the Defense Technical Information Center; unregistered users should direct such requests to the National Technical Information Service. INTRODUCTION The effects of environmental conditions on survival of airborne bacteria have largely been determined in laboratory studies (e.g., Ehrilich, et at., 1970a,b;Dimmick, 1960;Babich and Stotzky, 1974;Lighthart, 1973;Tong, and Lighthart, 1998). Relatively little research has been done to evaluate the insitu environmental conditions associated with their atmospheric abundance and dynamics.…”

Section: Prefacementioning

confidence: 99%

Meteorological Variables Associated with Population Density of Culturable Atmospheric Bacteria at a Summer Site in the Mid-Willamette River Valley, Oregon

Lighthart¹,

Shaffer²,

Frisch³

et al. 2004

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“…The toxicity of a pollutant may be reduced by the specific abiotic properties of one ecosystem, whereas in another ecosystem with different physicochemical characteristics, the toxicity of an equivalent dose of the same pollutant may be potentiated (14)(15)(16)(17). The latter environments should be considered high risk environments.…”

Section: Physicochemical Factors: Modifiers Of Pollutant Toxicity Higmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Microbes are sensitive to most pollutants (14)(15)(16)(17), and an inhibition of microbial activity is accompanied by reductions in the ecologic processes that they perform. The adverse effects of toxicants on microbe-mediated ecologic processes have not, as yet, been incorporated into the formulations for computing criteria and standards of environmental risks (18,103).…”

Section: Microbes As Assay Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing Standards for Environmental Toxicants: The Need to Consider Abiotic Environmental Factors and Microbe-Mediated Ecologic Processes

Babich¹,

Stotzky²

1983

Environmental Health Perspectives

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This article suggests and discusses two novel aspects for the formulation of standards for environmental toxicants. First, uniform national standards for each pollutant will be underprotective for some ecosystems and overprotective for others, inasmuch as the toxicity of a pollutant to the indigenous biota is dependent on the physicochemical properties of the recipient environment. As the number of chemicals that need regulation is immense and as microbes appear to respond similarly to pollutant-abiotic factor interactions as do plants and animals, it is suggested that microbial assays be used initially to identify those abiotic factors that most influence the toxicity of specific pollutants. Thereafter, additional studies using plants and animals can focus on these pollutant-abiotic factor interactions, and more meaningful standards can then be formulated more rapidly and inexpensively. Second, it is suggested that the response to pollutants of microbe-mediated ecologic processes be used to quantitate the sensitivity of different ecosystems to various toxicants. Such a quantification, expressed in terms of an "ecological dose 50%" (EcD50), could be easily incorporated into the methodologies currently used to set water quality criteria and would also be applicable to setting criteria for terrestrial ecosystems.

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Air pollution and microbial ecology

Cited by 84 publications

References 399 publications

Effect of Metals Contamination on Soil Microbial Diversity, Enzymatic Activity, Organic Matter Decomposition and Nitrogen Mineralisation (A Review)

Effect of Metals Contamination on Soil Microbial Diversity, Enzymatic Activity, Organic Matter Decomposition and Nitrogen Mineralisation (A Review)

Meteorological Variables Associated with Population Density of Culturable Atmospheric Bacteria at a Summer Site in the Mid-Willamette River Valley, Oregon

Developing Standards for Environmental Toxicants: The Need to Consider Abiotic Environmental Factors and Microbe-Mediated Ecologic Processes

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