Assessing biological indicators for remediated anthropogenic urban soils.
Anthropogenic urban soils, including brownfield soils, are currently characterised and evaluated using mainly physico-chemical properties. Our objective was to determine if biological indicators could provide a more comprehensive soil quality assessment relative to sustainability, identifying contamination issues, and effectiveness of remediation strategies. Plant, invertebrate and microbial assays and functional processes were evaluated at 10 brownfield/anthropogenic urban locations at different stages of remediation in northwest England. Extreme sites were discriminated on the basis of earthworm counts and a small number of indicators likely to be related to their activity. It was concluded that identifying a universally-applicable benchmark suite of biological indicators is very unlikely without considerable advancement of knowledge and technology.
Hartley
W
W
School of Biological and Earth Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK. w.hartley@ljmu.ac.uk
Uffindell
L
L
Plumb
A
A
Rawlinson
H A
HA
Putwain
P
P
Dickinson
N M
NM
D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D004739:England; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D052918:Environmental Restoration and Remediation; D007448:Invertebrates / Q000502:physiology; D063245:Plant Development; D012987:Soil; D012988:Soil Microbiology
D012987:Soil