Abstract
Nanoscale materials have been produced with unprecedented speed due to their widespread use, and they may eventually be released into the environment. As effective adsorbents for heavy metals, carbon nanomaterials can be used to immobilize metals in contaminated soil, but little information is available regarding their effects on soil microarthropods. This study was designed to investigate the influence of three types of carbon nanomaterials, graphene (G), graphene oxide (GO) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on soil microarthropod communities under turfgrass growth conditions. The application of carbon nanomaterials resulted in increased abundance of all soil microarthropods, especially in the GO and CNT treatments. GO also significantly increased the abundances of multiple trophic functional groups, including predators, detritivores, herbivores and fungivores. Further, the dominant genera varied among the treatments. Herbivorous microarthropods predominated in the control, whereas predatory species predominated in the carbon nanomaterial treatments. Carbon nanomaterials also increased the total taxonomic richness, Shannon diversity index, and dominance index of the microarthropod community, but they decreased the evenness index. Higher diversity of soil microarthropods indicates an environment suitable for soil mesofauna and for enhanced decomposition and nutrient cycling in the soil food web.
Highlights
Soil microarthropods represent a class of soil fauna that is widespread in the soil ecosystem
6 genera of soil microarthropods were found in the control soil, whereas 17, 18 and 11 genera were observed in G, carbon nanotubes (CNTs)- and graphene oxide (GO)-treated soils, respectively
The species composition and abundance of soil microarthropods, the trophic functional groups, and the community indices can be used as sensitive indicators for evaluating ecosystem processes[4]
Summary
Soil microarthropods represent a class of soil fauna that is widespread in the soil ecosystem These organisms play important roles in soil organic matter decomposition, nutrient mineralization, microbial activity and soil aggregation[1,2,3], and are sensitive to the amendment of soil C and N and to disturbance of soil structure[4, 5]. Oxidized carbon nanomaterials include a large amount of chemically bonded oxygen on the surface Due to their large specific surface areas and porous structures with many functional groups, carbon nanomaterials have shown good adsorption abilities for metal ions in environmental applications[9, 10]. We characterized the responses of soil microarthropods to carbon nanomaterials in order to provide a scientific basis for the application of carbon nanomaterials for remediating soil contaminated with heavy metals
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