Abstract
ABSTRACTThe environment-friendly disposal approaches for sewage sludge remain a challenge worldwide, and agricultural application of the treated sewage sludge, i.e. biosolids, as soil conditioner and nutrient source for plants, is still one of the most promising options for dealing with the waste. In this study, we compared the effects of long-term applications of biosolids and mineral fertilizer on soil microbial community using phospholipid fatty acid profiles in an agricultural field. The microbes predominant in the mineral fertilizer soil remained the most abundant in the biosolids-amended soil. Bacterial and fungal communities presented downtrends in both absolute and relative amounts; however, percentage of Gram-positive bacteria remained unchanged. Soil pH displayed significant negative correlations with microbial communities and explained 64%, 56% and 44% of the variances in microbial biomass, bacteria and fungi, respectively, while soil NO3–-N was positively correlated with microbial biomass, bacteria and fungi (r2 = 0.53, 0.51 and 0.54, respectively).
Highlights
Biosolids are treated sewage sludge which is the major by-product of the wastewater treatment and characterized by the nutrient-rich organic materials
Biosolids are of other advantages over the traditionally inorganic fertilizer, for example, low cost and the nutrient slow-release that keeps nutrients constantly available and promotes its efficiency for plants and soils [9], may reduce the potential environmental pollution caused by leaching of excess nutrients that often happens in mineral fertilizer added soils [10]
Soil pH value in the field amended with biosolids was greater than that in the field with mineral fertilizer (p = 0.003), and the opposing patterns were observed on other soil chemical properties
Summary
Biosolids are treated sewage sludge which is the major by-product of the wastewater treatment and characterized by the nutrient-rich organic materials. Agricultural land application of treated sewage sludge, i.e. biosolids, as soil conditioner and nutrient source for plants, is one of the most promising options for dealing with the waste [3,4,5], since it has high contents of organic matter, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) with great potentials of improving the quality and yield of crops as a good alternative to mineral fertilizers and upgrading soil conditions especially for fixing land degradation problems [3,6,7,8]. The ‘safety’ issue has been always the highest priority for the agricultural application of biosolids made of sewage sludge [12,15,16]
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