Effects of Cd, Zn, or both on soil microbial biomass and activity in a clay loam soil

We investigated Cd, Zn, and Cd+Zn toxicity to soil microbial biomass and activity, and indigenous Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar trifolii, in two near neutral pH clay loam soils, under long-term arable and grassland management, in a 6-month laboratory incubation, with a view to determining the causative metal. Both soils were amended with Cd- or Zn-enriched sewage sludge, to produce soils with total Cd concentrations at four times (12 mg Cd g-1 soil), and total Zn concentrations (300 mg Zn kg-1 soil) at the EU upper permitted limit. The additive effects of Cd plus Zn at these soil concentrations were also investigated. There were no significant differences in microbial biomass C (B C), biomass ninhydrin N (B N), ATP, or microbial respiration between the different treatments. Microbial metabolic quotient (defined as qCO2=units of CO2-C evolved unit -1 biomass C unit-1 time) also did not differ significantly between treatments. However, the microbial maintenance energy (in this study defined as qCO2-to-μ ratio value, where μ is the growth rate) indicated that more energy was required for microbial synthesis in metal-rich sludge-treated soils (especially Zn) than in control sludge-treated soils. Indigenous R. leguminosarum bv. trifolii numbers were not significantly different between untreated and sludge-treated grassland soils after 24 weeks regardless of metal or metal concentrations. However, rhizobial numbers in the arable soils treated with metal-contaminated sludges decreased significantly (P<0.05) compared to the untreated control and uncontaminated sludge-treated soils after 24 weeks. The order of decreasing toxicity to rhizobia in the arable soils was Zn>Cd>Cd+Zn.