Functioning of metal contaminated garden soil after remediation.

The effect of remediation using three EDTA doses (10, 30, 60 mmol kg(-1)) on soil functioning was assessed using column experiment and Brassica rapa. Soil washing removed up to 77, 29 and 72% of metals from soil contaminated with 1378, 578 and 8.5 mg kg(-1) of Pb, Zn and Cd, respectively. Sequential extraction indicated removal from the carbonate soil fraction. Metal oral-accessibility from the stomach phase was reduced by up to 75 and from the small intestine by up to 79% (Pb). Part of metals (up to 0.8% Cd) was lost due to leaching from columns. Remediation reduced toxic metal soil-root transfer by up to 61% but did not prevent metal accumulation in leaves. The fitness of plants grown on EDTA washed soils (gas exchange, fluorescence) was not compromised. Remediation initially reduced the soil DNA content (up to 29%, 30 mmol kg(-1) EDTA) and changed the structure of microbial population.

Single application of sewage sludge--impact on the quality of an alluvial agricultural soil.

The effects of sewage sludge on soil quality with regard to its nutrient and heavy metal content, microbial community structure and ability to maintain specific soil function (degradation of herbicide glyphosate) were investigated in a three months study using an alluvial soil (Eutric Fluvisol). Dehydrated sewage sludge significantly increased soil organic matter (up to 20.6% of initial content), total and available forms of N (up to 33% and 220% of initial amount, respectively), as well as total and plant available forms of P (up to 11% and 170% of initial amount, respectively) and K (up to 70% and 47% of initial amount, respectively) in the upper 2 cm soil layer. The increase of organic matter was most prominent 3d after the application of sewage sludge, after 3 months it was no longer significant. Contents of nutrients kept to be significantly higher in the sewage sludge treated soil till the end of experiment. Contents of some heavy metals (Zn, Cu, Pb) increased as well. The highest increase was found for Zn (up to 53% of initial amount), however it was strongly bound to soil particles and its total content was kept below the maximum permissible limit for agricultural soil. Based on molecular fingerprinting of bacterial 16S rRNA gene and fungal ITS fragment on 3rd day and 3rd month after sewage sludge amendment, significant short term effects on bacterial and fungal communities were shown due to the sewage sludge. The effects were more pronounced and more long-term for bacterial than fungal communities. The mineralization of (14)C-glyphosate in the sewage sludge soil was 55.6% higher than in the control which can be linked to (i) a higher glyphosate bioavailability in sewage sludge soil, which was triggered by the pre-sorption of phosphate originating from the sewage sludge and/or (ii) beneficial alterations of the sewage sludge to the physical-chemical characteristics of the soil.

In situ mass distribution quotient (iMDQ) - a new factor to compare bioavailability of chemicals in soils?

Aim of this work was the development of a new non-biological factor to determine microbial in situ bioavailability of chemicals in soils. Pesticide residues were extracted from ten highly different agricultural soils that had been incubated with the (14)C-herbicide isoproturon (IPU) under comparable soil conditions (water tension - 15 kPa; soil density 1.3 g cm(-3)). Two different pesticide extraction approaches were compared: (i) (14)C-pesticide residues were measured in the pore water (PW) which was extracted from soil by centrifugation; (ii) (14)C-pesticide residues were extracted from soil samples with an excess of water (EEW). We introduce the pesticide's in situ mass distribution quotient (iMDQ) as a measure for pesticide bioavailability, which is calculated as a quotient of adsorbed and dissolved chemical amounts for both approaches (iMDQ(PW), iMDQ(EEW)). Pesticide mineralization in soils served as a reference for real microbial availability. A highly significant correlation between iMDQ(PW) and mineralization showed that PW extraction is adequate to assess IPU bioavailability. In contrast, no correlation exists between IPU mineralization and its extractability from soil with EEW. Therefore, it can be concluded that soil equilibration at comparable conditions and subsequent PW extraction is vital for a isoproturon bioavailability ranking of soils.

Batch experiments versus soil pore water extraction--what makes the difference in isoproturon (bio-)availability?

Two approaches to determine pesticide (bio-)availability in soils (i) batch experiments with "extraction with an excess of water" (EEW) and (ii) the recently introduced "soil pore water (PW) extraction" of pesticide incubated soil samples have been compared with regard to the sorption behavior of the model compound isoproturon in soils. A significant correlation between TOC and adsorbed pesticide amount was found when using the EEW approach. In contrast, there was no correlation between TOC and adsorbed isoproturon when using the in situ PW extraction method. Furthermore, sorption was higher at all concentrations in the EEW method when comparing the distribution coefficients (K(d)) for both methods. Over all, sorption in incubated soil samples at an identical water tension (-15 kPa) and soil density (1.3 g cm(-3)) appears to be controlled by a complex combination of sorption driving soil parameters. Isoproturon bioavailability was found to be governed in different soils by binding strength and availability of sorption sites as well as water content, whereas the dominance of either one of these factors seems to depend on the individual composition and characteristics of the respective soil sample. Using multiple linear regression analysis we obtained furthermore indications that the soil pore structure is affected by the EEW method due to disaggregation, resulting in a higher availability of pesticide sorption sites than in undisturbed soil samples. Therefore, it can be concluded that isoproturon sorption is overestimated when using the EEW method, which should be taken into account when using data from this approach or similar batch techniques for risk assessment analysis.