title: Influence of different forms of acidities on soil microbiological properties and enzyme activities at an acid mine drainage contaminated site.
abstract: Assessment of microbial parameters, viz. microbial biomass, fluorescence diacetate, microbial respiration, acid phosphatase, beta-glucosidase and urease with respect to acidity helps in evaluating the quality of soils. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of different forms of acidities on soil microbial parameters in an acid mine drainage contaminated site around coal deposits in Jainta Hills of India. Total potential and exchangeable acidity, extractable and exchangeable aluminium were significantly higher in contaminated soil compared to the baseline (p<0.01). Different forms of acidity were significantly and positively correlated with each other (p<0.05). Further, all microbial properties were positively and significantly correlated with organic carbon and clay (p<0.05). The ratios of microbial parameters with organic carbon were negatively correlated with different forms of acidity. Principal component analysis and cluster analyses showed that the microbial activities are not directly influenced by the total potential acidity and extractable aluminium. Though acid mine drainage affected soils had higher microbial biomass and activities due to higher organic matter content than those of the baseline soils, the ratios of microbial parameters/organic carbon indicated suppression of microbial growth and activities due to acidity stress.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology & Geophysics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721302, West Bengal, India.
authors.forename: Prafulla Kumar
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Sahoo
authors.forename: Pradip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bhattacharyya
authors.forename: Subhasish
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tripathy
authors.forename: Sk Md
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Equeenuddin
authors.forename: M K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Panigrahi
mesh_terms: D000143:Acids; D000535:Aluminum / Q000032:analysis; D018533:Biomass; D002244:Carbon / Q000032:analysis; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004798:Enzymes / Q000032:analysis*; D019793:Fluorescein; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007194:India; D007220:Industrial Waste / Q000032:analysis*; D008670:Metals / Q000032:analysis; D008906:Mining; D012987:Soil / Q000032:analysis; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D013052:Spectrometry, X-Ray Emission; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid
chemical_list: D000143:Acids; D004798:Enzymes; D007220:Industrial Waste; D008670:Metals; D012987:Soil; D012989:Soil Pollutants; D002244:Carbon; D000535:Aluminum; D019793:Fluorescein