Soil enzymatic activities and microbial community structure with di erentapplication rates of Cd and Pb
KHAN Sardar , CAO Qing , HESHAM Abd El-Latif , XIA Yue , HE Ji-zheng
DOI:
Received August 14, 2006,Revised March 16, 2007, Accepted , Available online
Volume 19,2007,Pages 834-840
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This study focused on the changes of soil microbial diversity and potential inhibitory e ects of heavy metals on soil enzymatic
activities at di erent application rates of Cd and/or Pb. The soil used for experiments was collected from Beijing and classified as
endoaquepts. Pots containing 500 g of the soil with di erent Cd and/or Pb application rates were incubated for a period of 0, 2, 9,
12 weeks in a glasshouse and the soil samples were analyzed for individual enzymes, including catalase, alkaline phosphatase and
dehydrogenase, and the changes of microbial community structure. Results showed that heavy metals slightly inhibited the enzymatic
activities in all the samples spiked with heavy metals. The extent of inhibition increased significantly with increasing level of heavy
metals, and varied with the incubation periods. The soil bacterial community structure, as determined by polymerase chain reactiondenaturing
gradient gel electrophoresis techniques, was di erent in the contaminated samples as compared to the control. The highest
community change was observed in the samples amended with high level of Cd. Positive correlations were observed among the three
enzymatic activities, but negative correlations were found between the amounts of the heavy metals and the enzymatic activities.
