Soil microorganisms may be both sensitive and resilient to various disturbances. The effects of a single stressor on soil microorganisms have been well studied, but only limited research has been carried out to test the effects of simultaneous action of diverse stressors. Soil samples were collected from a long-term polluted zinc and lead site and an unpolluted site. Modeling studies assumed sp...

While microbial nitrogen transformations in soils had been known to be affected by heavy metal pollution, changes in abundance and community structure of the mediating microbial populations had been not yet well characterized in polluted rice soils. Here, by using the prevailing molecular fingerprinting and enzyme activity assays and comparisons to adjacent non-polluted soils, we examined chang...

With the rise of sustainable development, rehabilitation of brownfield sites located in urban areas has become a major concern. Management of contaminated soils in relation with environmental and sanitary risk concerns is therefore a strong aim needing the development of both useful tools for risk assessment and sustainable remediation techniques. For soils polluted by metals and metalloids (MT...

the morphological diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (amf) at the anguran zn and pb mining region (zanjan province, iran) were studied along a transect from the mine to 4500 m away. within each plot, a composite sample of root and rhizospheric soil from a dominant indigenous plant was collected. the soil samples were analyzed for their physico-chemical characteristics. spores were extrac...

Black yeast fungi play critical role in degradation of petroleum polluted soils. Little attention has been paid to the biodiversity of black yeast fungi in Iran. In this paper, diversity of black yeast fungi was studied in petroleum polluted soils in Tabriz and Urmia regions. Soil samples were collected from petroleum polluted areas in vicinity of oil storage tanks in Tabriz and Urmia cities (E...

The best metabolic conditions for the biodegradation of hydrocarbons by a selected microbial consortium from a natural soil were investigated in order to improve the efficiency of bioremediation processes for cleaning of polluted waters and soils. Phenanthrene is one of the most recalcitrant pollutants to microbial decomposition and most difficult to remove. A microbial consortium was selected ...

A field survey was conducted to investigate the heavy metal contamination of paddy soils in Xiangyin County, China. The total concentration of Cd, Pb, Zn, Cu, Cr and Ni in paddy soil was measured, and the environmental quality of paddy soil was assessed using pollution index methods. Paddy soils were slightly polluted with the content of Cd exceeding the standard value. The moderately polluted ...

In human risk assessment, ingestion of soil is considered a major route of toxic Pb exposure. A large body of research has focussed on the measurement of the 'total' Pb contents in sediment, soil and dust as a measure for the exposure to lead. We report that Pb bioaccessibility (i.e. the maximum bioavailability), determined with an in vitro test, does not necessarily depend on the total Pb cont...

Four types of soil (red, yellow, cinnamon, and paddy soil) from China were used to conduct experiments in pots to study the influence of humic acid (humic acid (HA) and fulvic acid (FA)) on the accumulation of lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) in tobacco leaves. In non-polluted soils, the tobacco leaf uptake of Cd was dramatically influenced by the total soil metal concentration and soil properties, w...