Abstract

Research Institute, Rome, ItalySoil quality is defined as the capacity of a soil to function as a vital system, within natural or managed ecosystemboundaries, sustain plant and animal health and productivity, maintain or enhance air and water environmentquality and support human health and habitation. Soil organisms are extremely diverse and contribute to a widerange of ecosystem services that are essential to the sustainable functioning of natural and managed ecosystems.In particular, microbial communities provide several ecosystem services, which ensure soil quality and fertility. Infact, they adapt promptly to environmental changes by varying their activity and by increasing the reproduction ofpopulations that have favourable skills.The structure (e.g. cell abundance) and functioning (e.g. viability and activity) of natural microbial communitiesand changes in them under different environmental conditions can be considered useful indicators of soil qualitystate.In this work we studied the quality state of three different soils, located in Taranto Province (Southern Italy),affected by land degradation processes, such as organic matter depletion, desertification and contamination (PCBand metals). Moreover, compost, produced from selected organic waste, was added to the soils studied in order toimprove their quality state.Soil samples were collected before and after compost addition and both microbial and chemical analyses were performedin order to evaluate the soil quality state at each site at different times. For this purpose, the microbiologicalindicators evaluated were bacterial abundance (DAPI counts), cell viability (Live/Dead method), dehydrogenaseactivity (DHA) and soil respiration. At the same time, the main physico-chemical soil characteristics (organiccarbon, available phosphorous, total nitrogen, carbonate and water content, texture and pH) were also measured.Moreover, in the contaminated soil samples PCB and inorganic (e.g. Pb, Se, Sn, Zn) contaminants were analysedrespectively by GC-MS and ICP-MS.The overall results showed that the bacterial structure and functioning were affected in different ways by theorganic carbon availability and quality, and contaminant occurrence (organic or inorganic compounds). Thecompost treatment contributed to improve soil fertility and to increase cell number and activity after 7 months inthe two low organic carbon content soils. At the polluted site a general increase in bacterial activity after compostaddition was also observed and this might be related to a decrease in inorganic and organic contamination levels.

Autore Pugliese

• Calabrese Angelantonio , Ancona Valeria , Uricchio Vito Felice

Tutti gli autori

• Ancona V.; Barra Caracciolo A.; Grenni P.; Di Lenola M.; Calabrese A.; Campanale C.; Uricchio V.F.

Titolo volume/Rivista

Geophysical research abstracts

Anno di pubblicazione

2014

ISSN

1607-7962

ISBN

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Wos

Nessuna citazione

Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

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Numero di citazioni Scopus

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Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

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Settori ERC

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Codici ASJC

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