Installation of impervious surface in urban areas affects microbial biomass, activity (potential C mineralisation), and functional diversity of the fine earth

Soil Research ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zongqiang Wei ◽  
Shaohua Wu ◽  
Shenglu Zhou ◽  
Chen Lin

Artificial soil sealing in urban areas has attracted increasing attention due to its potential hazard to urban ecosystems. It has negative impacts on soil function and the urban environment, since the impervious surface can hamper the exchange of material and energy between the soil and other environmental compartments. However, information about the effects of artificial soil sealing in urban area on soil quality and properties, especially the microbiological components, is still limited. Ten plots which differed in land use were selected from Nanjing City, China, to investigate the effects of impervious surfaces on microbiological characteristics in urban soil. Plot types were paved road, residential paved square, residential paved alley, and grassed area. Soil microbial biomass carbon (Cmic) and nitrogen (Nmic), and activities were analysed, and the microbial functional diversity of fine earth (<2 mm material) was characterised by the Biolog EcoPlate technique. Mean concentrations of soil organic carbon (SOC), Cmic, and Nmic in fine earth from the impervious areas (0–20 cm) were, respectively, 6.5 g kg–1, 55.8 mg kg–1, and 12.2 mg kg–1, which were significantly lower than concentrations from grass areas. Urban sealing also resulted in decreases in soil microbial activity and functional diversity, but the influences on soil microbial diversity varied among land uses, with road pavement having the most negative effect. Substrate use patterns showed that microorganisms in urban sealed soils had higher utilisation of polymers (P < 0.05) but lower use of carbohydrates and amines/amides (P < 0.05). These findings demonstrate that SOC in the sealed soils was more stable than in open soils, and the installation of impervious surfaces such as asphalt and concrete, which are very common in urban areas, can result in decreases in SOC content, soil microbial activity, and diversity in urban soil.

Author(s):  
Beata Klimek ◽  
Hanna Poliwka-Modliborek ◽  
Irena M. Grześ

AbstractInteractions between soil fauna and soil microorganisms are not fully recognized, especially in extreme environments, such as long-term metal-polluted soils. The purpose of the study was to assess how the presence of Lasius niger ants affected soil microbial characteristics in a long-term metal-polluted area (Upper Silesia in Poland). Paired soil samples were taken from bulk soil and from ant nests and analysed for a range of soil physicochemical properties, including metal content (zinc, cadmium, and lead). Microbial analysis included soil microbial activity (soil respiration rate), microbial biomass (substrate-induced respiration rate), and bacteria catabolic properties (Biolog® ECO plates). Soil collected from ant nests was drier and was characterized by a lower content of organic matter, carbon and nitrogen contents, and also lower metal content than bulk soil. Soil microbial respiration rate was positively related to soil pH (p = 0.01) and negatively to water-soluble metal content, integrated into TIws index (p = 0.01). Soil microbial biomass was negatively related to TIws index (p = 0.04). Neither soil microbial activity and biomass nor bacteria catabolic activity and diversity indices differed between bulk soil and ant nests. Taken together, ant activity reduced soil contamination by metals in a microscale which support microbial community activity and biomass but did not affect Biolog® culturable bacteria.


2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (Special Issue No. 1) ◽  
pp. S74-S80 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Gömöryová ◽  
K. Střelcová ◽  
J. Škvarenina ◽  
J. Bebej ◽  
D. Gömöry

: In November 2004, forest stands in the Tatra National Park (TANAP) were affected by windthrow and in July 2005, the wildfire broke out on a part of the affected area. The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of the windthrow and fire disturbances on soil microbial activity. Basal and potential soil respiration, N-mineralisation, catalase activity, soil microbial biomass, and cellulase activity were measured in soil samples taken from the A-horizon (depth of 0–10 cm) along 100 m transects established on 4 plots (reference site, burnt, non-extracted, and extracted sites) in October 2006. Some soil microbial characteristics exhibited a high spatial variability, especially microbial biomass and N-mineralisation. Significant differences in soil microbial characteristics (especially basal soil respiration and catalase activity) between plots were found. Generally, the highest microbial activity was revealed on the plot affected by fire. Soil microbial activity was similar on the extracted and non-extracted sites.


2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Cristiano De Assumpção Santos ◽  
Elisandro Pires Frigo ◽  
Késia Damaris de Azevedo Frigo ◽  
Caroline Thaís Eckert ◽  
Jonathan Dieter ◽  
...  

Urbanization and disorderly occupation of urban areas have created several environmental problems, such as floods. Among the main causes of these problems is soil sealing associated with urban sprawl. Impervious surfaces provide less precipitation to recharge catchment basins by diverting water that should be restored in that region to other basins. This study compares two existing paving systems: concrete pavers with permeable joints and porous concrete pavers. Our objective was to learn which system better promotes the recovery of catchment basins and, consequently, mitigate problems caused by increasing surface runoff in urban areas. In order to reach the results, precipitations were simulated using lysimeters and a rainfall simulation infiltrometer at rainfall rates of 45, 60, and 90 mm h-1. The analyzed paving systems represented characteristics of public sidewalks. This experiment indicates that porous concrete pavers (99.86%) and concrete pavers (99.59%) present mean infiltration similar to that of grass cover (100%) and thereby can promote water infiltration into soil and the recovery of catchment basins in urban areas.


2009 ◽  
Vol 89 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
N Z Lupwayi ◽  
M A Arshad ◽  
R H Azooz ◽  
Y K Soon

More than 90% of acid soils in western Canada are in Alberta, yet the use of agricultural lime is limited because it is expensive. Wood ash, a by-product of pulp and lumber mills, can be used for liming acid soils. We investigated the effects of amending an acid Luvisol with wood ash or lime on soil microbiological properties at Beaverlodge, Alberta. Both soil amendments were applied at a calcium carbonate rate of 6.72 t ha-1, which was 8.40 t ha-1 for wood ash and 7.47 t ha-1 for lime, in 2002. Soil microbial biomass C (MBC) and the functional diversity and community structures of soil bacteria (indicated by substrate utilization patterns) were measured from 2002 to 2005 under barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), canola (Brassica napus L.), field pea (Pisum sativum L.), and timothy grass (Phleum pratense L.). In the rhizosphere, wood ash increased soil MBC between 2.4-fold in 2002 and 1.3-fold in 2005, and lime increased MBC from 3.2-fold in 2002 to 1.3-fold in 2005. In bulk soil, the increases in MBC ranged from 3.0-fold in 2003 to 1.8-fold in 2005 for wood ash, and from 4.9-fold in 2002 to 2.0-fold in 2005 for lime. Crop effects on MBC were not consistent. Because annual crops were grown in rotation, it is possible that the results obtained in one crop were confounded by effects of the preceding crop. In 2003 and 2004, both amendments increased Shannon index (H’) of bacterial functional diversity in the rhizosphere, and similar results were observed in 2005 in bulk soil. Shifts in the functional structure of bacterial communities due to soil amendment were observed in bulk soil, and shifts due to crop effects were observed in the rhizosphere. In 2003, the average soil pH(CaCl2) increased from 4.91 in control treatments of different crops to 6.60 in lime-amended plots and 6.70 in wood ash-amended plots. In 2004, both wood ash and lime significantly increased soil C mineralization (up to 10 d incubation), but basal respiration (11-24 d incubation) was not affected. The large effect (up to about fivefold) of soil amendments on MBC implies that soil acidity is a major limiting factor for biological processes and the productivity of some Luvisolic soils in Alberta. Wood ash could be used to alleviate these limitations. Key words: C mineralization, microbial diversity, microbial biomass, soil amendment, soil acidity


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-172
Author(s):  
Iswari Nur Hidayati ◽  
R Suharyadi

Impervious surface is one of the major land cover types of urban and suburban environment. Conversion of rural landscapes and vegetation area to urban and suburban land use is directly related to the increase of the impervious surface area. The impervious surface expansion is straight-lined with decreasing green spaces in urban areas. Impervious surface is one of indicator for detecting urban heat islands. This study compares various indices for mapping impervious surfaces using Landsat 8 OLI imagery by optimizing the different spectral characteristics of Landsat 8 OLI imagery. The research objectives are (1) to apply various indices for impervious surface mapping and (2) identifies impervious surfaces in urban areas based on multiple indices and provide recommendations and find the best index for mapping impervious surface in urban areas. In addition to utilizing the index, land use supervised classification method, maximum likelihood classification used for extracting built-up, and non-built-up areas. Accuracy assessment of this research used field data collection as primary data for calculating kappa coefficient, producer accuracy, and user accuracy. The study can also be extended to find the land surface temperature and correlate the impervious surface extraction data with urban heat islands.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (13) ◽  
pp. 2631 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong Fang ◽  
Yuchun Wei ◽  
Qiuping Dai

The area of urban impervious surfaces is one of the most important indicators for determining the level of urbanisation and the quality of the environment and is rapidly increasing with the acceleration of urbanisation in developing countries. This paper proposes a novel remote sensing index based on the coastal band and normalised difference vegetation index for extracting impervious surface distribution from Landsat 8 multispectral remote sensing imagery. The index was validated using three images covering urban areas of China and was compared with five other typical index methods for the extraction of impervious surface distribution, namely, the normalised difference built-up index, index-based built-up index, normalised difference impervious surface index, normalised difference impervious index, and combinational built-up index. The results showed that the novel index provided higher accuracy and effectively distinguished impervious surfaces from bare soil, and the average values of the recall, precision, and F1 score for the three images were 95%, 91%, and 93%, respectively. The novel index provides better applicability in the extraction of urban impervious surface distribution from Landsat 8 multispectral remote sensing imagery.


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