Assessing Soil Respiration as an Indicator of Soil Microbial Activity in Reclaimed Metal Contaminated Lands

Abstract

Mining, roasting as well as smelting of these elements have caused sulphur dioxide fumigations and metal particulate depositions which have led to various detrimental effects on the overall environmental quality of the Greater Sudbury region. Soil amendment and revegetation within the Greater Sudbury Region were initiated to restore the damage land. Several methods have been used to assess the progress made toward full ecosystem recovery. Soil respiration rates are particularly critical in the assessment of soil health. They reflect the complete extent of biological activity of living microorganisms in the soil. Bacterial and fungal the main biological soil components are functionally important and must be properly determined. The objective of the present study was to measure soil respiration and health in limed and unlimed areas in the Northern Ontario (Canada) region. The results confirm that the liming did maintain an increase in soil pH from extremely acid to slightly acid, even 30 to 40 years after dolostone applications. Fungi were more abundant in limed sites compared to unlimed areas. Soil respiration based on CO 2 rate followed the same trend. Respiration rates for the reference sites were similar to those documented for the limed areas. Summer soil respiration rates were associated (r = 0.50) with total fungal abundance in the targeted sites. Overall, the Solvita test of assessing soil respiration and determining microbial mass and soil quality is a reliable and cost effective method.

Microbial Response to Soil Liming of Damaged Ecosystems Revealed by Pyrosequencing and Phospholipid Fatty Acid Analyses

“…These results are consistent with data reported in other studies [4,6,14,16]. Likewise, strong positive correlations between soil pH and CEC reflect the data documented in other soil analysis under different conditions [15,35,36].…”

“…This demonstrates that fungi exhibit wider pH ranges for optimal growth. The optimum level of pH varies from 5 to 9 [4,6,21,39]. Overall, pyrosequencing data are consistent with PLFA results revealing a much lower fungal biomass compared to bacteria in limed and unlimed sites.…”

“…Some found no changes in microbial biomass while others reported a decrease in microbial relative abundance associated with high levels of soil metal accumulation [4,6–8]. Extensive research has been conducted on the effects of liming on agricultural soils within the context of integrated soil management [2,9–13].…”

“…This has led to improvement of soil fertility in limed sites compared to unlimed areas [14–16]. Relationship between soil pH and its effect on the activity and composition of microbial populations have been discussed in various reports [4,6,8–10,17–19]. Low pH inhibits the growth of soil bacteria in favor of more resistant fungi [18,20].…”

Predicting Cool‐Season Turfgrass Response with Solvita Soil Tests, Part 2: CO2–Burst Carbon Concentrations

“…As an assessment of soil CO 2 respiration, the SSCB test has been evaluated in various crop and grassland systems (Goupil and Nkongolo, 2014; McDonald et al, 2014; Castro Bustamante and Hartz, 2016; Sadeghpour et al, 2016; Sciarappa et al, 2017; Mureva and Ward, 2017; Ward et al, 2017; Bamber et al, 2018; Chahal and van Eerd, 2018; Norris et al, 2018). The SSCB test is positively and significantly ( P < 0.05) correlated with SOM (McDonald et al, 2014; Castro Bustamante and Hartz, 2016; Sadeghpour et al, 2016; Rogers et al, 2018), soil total organic C and N (Haney et al, 2012; McDonald et al, 2014), soil N mineralization (Haney et al, 2008b; McDonald et al, 2014; Castro Bustamante and Hartz, 2016; Rogers et al, 2018), plant‐mineralizable N (Norris et al, 2018), soil water‐extractable organic C and N (Haney et al, 2012; Castro Bustamante and Hartz, 2016), soil P mineralization (Haney et al, 2008b), and chloroform fumigation extraction microbial biomass C (Chatterjee and Acharya, 2018).…”