New approach strategy for heavy metals immobilization and microbiome structure long-term industrially contaminated soils

Abstract

The progress of engineering technologies highly influences the development of methods that lead to the condition improvement of areas contaminated with heavy metals (HMs). The aided phytostabilization fits into this trend, and was used to evaluate HM-immobilization effectiveness in phytostabilized soils under variable temperatures by applying 16 freezing-thawing cycles (FTC). Diatomite amendment and Lolium perenne L., also were applied. Cd/Ni/Cu/Pb/Zn each total content in phytostabilized soils were determined, along with the verification for each metal of its distribution in four extracted fractions (F1 ÷ F4) from soils. Based on changes in HM distribution, each metal's stability was estimated. Moreover, HM accumulation in plant roots and stems and soil microbial composition were investigated. Independently of the experimental variant (no-FTC-exposure or FTC-exposure), the above-ground biomass yields in the diatomite-amended series were higher as compared to the corresponding control series. The evident changes in Pb/Zn-bioavailability were observed. The metal stability increase was mainly attributed to metal concentration decreasing in the F1 fraction and increasing in the F4 fraction, respectively. Diatomite increased Cd/Zn-stability in not-FTC-exposed-phytostabilized soils. FTC-exposure favorably influenced Pb/Zn stability. Diatomite increased soil pH values and Cd/Ni/Cu/Zn-bioaccumulation (except Pb) in roots than in stems (in both experimental variants). FTC-exposure influenced soil microbial composition, increasing bacteria abundance belonging to Actinobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, and Sphingobacteria. At the genus level, FTC exposure significantly increased the abundances of Limnobacter sp., Tetrasphaera sp., Flavobacterium sp., and Dyella sp. Independently of the experimental variant, Sphingomonas sp. and Mycobacterium sp., which have a tolerance to HM contamination, were core bacterial groups, comprising about 6 ÷ 7% of all soil bacteria.