Microbial biomass carbon and enzyme activities of urban soils in Beijing

2015

Environ Sci Pollut Res

Self Cite

Reclaimed water is widely used for landscape irrigation with the benefits of saving fresh water and ameliorating soil quality. Field samples were collected from seven parks in Beijing irrigated reclaimed water with different irrigation history in 2011 and 2014 to evaluate the long-term impacts of reclaimed water irrigation on soil quality. Soil quality index method was used to assess the comprehensive effects of reclaimed water irrigation on soil. Results showed that the effects of reclaimed water irrigation on the soil nutrient conditions were limited. Compared with tap water irrigation, soil salinity was significantly higher in 2011, while the difference was insignificant in 2014; soil heavy metals were slightly higher by 0.5-10.6 % in 2011 and 2014, while the differences were insignificant. Under reclaimed water irrigation, soil biological activities were significantly improved in both years. Total nitrogen in reclaimed water had a largest effect on soil quality irrigated reclaimed water. Soil quality irrigated with reclaimed water increased by 2.6 and 6.8 % respectively in 2011 and 2014, while the increases were insignificant. Soil quality of almost half samples was more than or closed to soil quality of natural forest in Beijing. Soil quality was ameliorated at some extent with long-term reclaimed water irrigation.

Section: Correlation Between Environmental Factors and Soil Biologicamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Calculation Of Soil Quality Indexmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil quality assessment of urban green space under long-term reclaimed water irrigation

Lyu

2015

Environ Sci Pollut Res

Self Cite

“…Soil parameters were determined as described in Wang et al (2011), Wang et al (2012 and Peng et al (2011). Soil organic carbon contents were determined using HCl treated method (Nam et al, 2008).…”

Section: Measurements Of Soil Parameter and Paved Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of land use intensity on the natural attenuation capacity of urban soils in Beijing, China

Wang

Faber

Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety

et al. 2015

Self Cite

a b s t r a c tUrban soils are major sinks that provide the services of attenuating and detoxifying environmental pollutants. This significant ecosystem service of urban soil can be evaluated by the natural attenuation capacity (NAC). In this research, we develop a method to calculate the natural pollutant attenuation capacity of urban soils on the basis of 5 chemical and physical measurements. By selecting municipal parks soils for reference, we assessed the spatial and temporal changes of NAC in Beijing city soils under influences of rapid urbanization. Results indicated that NAC was increasingly impacted by land use in the order: parks oschools owoodsoresidential areasotraffic areas. Sealed area rate and construction age are two main factors affecting the urban soil NAC. However, their roles are opposite. It would take dozens of years to reach the maximum soil NAC by soil self-recovery. The spatial distribution of NAC in Beijing built-up area resembled the age of urbanization. Regional hot spots of NAC corresponded to the land use distribution and the urbanization progress in Beijing city. The developed index can be used to assess the impacts of urbanization on soil ecosystem services of natural attenuation of contaminants.

“…Herbicides reaching the soil in significant quantities have direct effects on soil microbiological aspects. However, few studies have investigated the ecological health or functions of urban soils in Beijing, despite the many reports of accumulation and distribution of heavy metals in urban soils (Wang et al, 2011). The integrated stress index is usually more useful to visualize between-site and/or between survey differences for comparison with exposure (Dagnino et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of stress index in evaluating toxicological response of soil microbial community to contaminants in soils

Wang

Faber

2017

Ecological Indicators

Self Cite

a b s t r a c tToxic effects of chemical contaminants on soil microbial community structure and function have been widely studied. However, it is difficult to assess risks regarding soil microbial toxicity. In the ratio to reference approach, the stress index (SI) is used to indicate the relative change of biological response of organisms compared to a reference. In this study, the SI approach was used to assess the soil microbial stress levels of multiple heavy metal contaminated urban soil in three sites. Soil microbial community functional parameters suggested that two heavy metal contaminated sites (G and D) had apparently higher stress indexes relative to the reference site, N. Use of those similar microbial community functional parameters revealed that parameters such as N and C mineralization and alkaline phosphatase activity were sensitive to the addition of the herbicide Siduron. Soil G, which had the highest microbial stress index, showed more severe impairment when amended with Siduron, while soil N and soil D showed dose-dependent responses to Siduron. Overall, the results of this study indicated that, when compared with direct use of real data describing microbial parameters, use of SI in ecological risk assessment is more indicative and helpful.