Effects of natural and prolonged crude oil pollution on soil enzyme activities

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In this study the effects of natural and long-term oil pollution levels (H: high, M: moderate and L: low) on the activity of lipase, β-glucosidase, urease, phosphatase, and dehydrogenase were analyzed. For this purpose, 120 oil-contaminated soil samples were collected from four locations located in oil-rich region of the west of Iran (Kermanshah province, Iran). After determining the physicochemical characteristics of soils, microbial counting and enzyme activities were measured. To determine the total bacterial population and bacteria involved in crude oil decomposition, bacterial counting was done in NA and CFMM culture media, respectively, which had a direct relationship with the increase in crude oil content. The average percentage of crude oil measured by Soxhlet method was 4.03%, 9.95% and 22.50% respectively for L, M and H levels. The results showed that the bacterial population increased with the increase of the contamination intensity. All the studied enzymes, except urease, had the highest activity in heavily polluted soils (H soil), and their lowest activity was observed in lightly polluted soils (L soils). Location 1 had the highest bacterial population as well as the highest activity of dehydrogenase (52.13 μg TPFg−1 h−1), acid phosphatase (35.86 μg PNPg−1 h−1), alkaline phosphatase (78.13 μg PNPg−1 h−1), lipase (92.58 μ MLA g−1 h−1) and β-glucosidase (21.67 μg PNPg−1 h−1) enzymes. In the soil samples of location 4, which had the lowest number of bacteria, the highest activity of urease enzyme (592.36 μg NH4g−1 h−1) was obtained. Principal components analysis (PCA) was also performed and 67% of the cumulative of the samples could be explained by the first two components (biochemical and physical). The findings of this research showed that natural and prolonged crude oil pollution caused the selection of oil-resistant microbial communities, and therefore we saw their positive response to the presence of oil compounds and increased enzyme activity other than urease activity.