Abstract
The effects of long-term heavy metal contamination on the soil biological processes and soil microbial communities were investigated in a typical electroplating site in Zhangjiakou, China. It was found that the soil of the electroplating plant at Zhangjiakou were heavily polluted by Cr, Cr (VI), Ni, Cu, and Zn, with concentrations ranged from 112.8 to 9727.2, 0 to 1083.3, 15.6 to 58.4, 10.8 to 510.0 and 69.6 to 631.6 mg/kg, respectively. Soil urease and phosphatase activities were significantly inhibited by the heavy metal contamination, while the microbial biomass carbon content and the bacterial community richness were much lower compared to noncontaminated samples, suggesting that the long-term heavy metal contamination had a severe negative effect on soil microorganisms. Differently, soil dehydrogenase was promoted in the presence of Chromate compared to noncontaminated samples. This might be due to the enrichment of Sphingomonadaceae, which have been proven to be able to secrete dehydrogenase. The high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene documented that Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Chloroflexi were the dominant bacterial phyla in the contaminated soil. The Spearman correlation analysis showed the Methylobacillus, Muribaculaceae, and Sphingomonadaceae were able to tolerate high concentrations of Cr, Cr (VI), Cu, and Zn, indicating their potential in soil remediation.
Highlights
The concentrations of each Heavy metals (HMs) were closely related to the electroplating process
Zhou reported that the abundance of Sphingomonadaceae increased with CrO4 exposure (VI) in contaminated soil, which had never been found in previous studies
High-throughand became the major bacteria in the cake layer of a membrane bioreactor [65]
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Heavy metals (HMs) are severe pollutants in soil environments from either natural processes or anthropogenic activities [1]. Electroplating industrial plants are the most common sources of toxic metals by direct or indirect discharge, though they play an important role in the Chinese economy [2,3]. The heavy metal waste usually piled up in large quantities, causing a potential threat to the safety of groundwater, soil, and the atmospheric environment [4]. Copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), nickel (Ni), and chromium (Cr) were most common in soil. The identification of HMs pollution is of significant ecological and anthropic importance
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