Soil respiration, ATP content, and Photobacterium toxicity test as indicators of metal pollution in soil

Abstract

The effects of heavy metal deposition from four different metalworks on soil respiration, ATP content, and toxicity to Photobacterium phosphoreum were examined. Soil samples were collected along a transect through the pollution gradients. Vegetation and soil types were homogeneous throughout the transects. Soil respiration was measured as CO2 production in closed bottles using an IR‐gas analyzer. The ATP content was measured with a bioluminometric assay after trichloracetic acid extraction of soil. The toxicities of distilled water extracts of soil samples were evaluated by the standard P. phosphoreum toxicity test and the metal content of these water extracts was measured as the bioavailable fraction of the heavy metal pollution in the soil. Soil respiration and ATP content were strongly affected by the heavy metal content in the soil. The correlation between the methods was high. The P. phosphoreum procedure can be used to estimate the toxicity of soils heavily polluted by metals. However, soil respiration and ATP content appear to be more sensitive indicators of soil pollution. © 1994 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc..

Suitability of the trans/cis Ratio of Unsaturated Fatty Acids in Pseudomonas putida NCTC 10936 as an Indicator of the Acute Toxicity of Chemicals

“…Hence, use of the trans/cis ratio of unsaturated fatty acids alone may be misleading. However, in combination with other parameters such as the ATP level (Vanhala and Ahtiainen, 1994;Reid et al, 1998), respiratory activities (Strotmann et al, 1993;De Wever et al, 1994), or the luminescence of Lux-marked Pseudomonas species (Boyd et al, 1997;Sinclair et al, 1999), it is a useful indicator for assessing the ecotoxic potential of chemicals.…”

The Toxicity of Substituted Phenolic Compounds to a Detoxifying and an Acetic Acid Bacterium

“…Toxic influences on ATP synthesis can be detected more specifically and in shorter times than in toxicity tests based on measuring the ATP content as a criterion for living cells (Kennicutt, 1980;Xu and Dutka, 1987;Vanhala and Ahtiainen, 1994). The fact that the ATP synthesis of A. calcoaceticus 69-V was more stable than that of A. methanolicus MB 58 could be related to the capability to degrade monohalogenated phenols and benzoates.…”

Heavy-metal pollution and remediation of forest soil around the Harjavalta Cu-Ni smelter, in SW Finland

“…Microbial respiration activity, physiological groups of bacteria (Fritze et al 1989), and microbial and fungal biomass (Fritze et al 1996) decreased towards the smelter. The toxicity of soil to Photobacterium phosphoreum increased towards the smelter (Vanhala and Ahtiainen 1994). At 4 km distance the structure of the microbial community had changed and the bacterial community was resistant to heavy metals but the microbial activity was on the level of unpolluted sites , Fritze et al 1997).…”