Cumulative effects of short term poly-metal contamination on soil bacterial community structure

Lionel Ranjard (1) , L. Lignier (1) , Rémi Chaussod (1)

1 Microbiologie

In this study we evaluated the short-term effects of copper, cadmium, and mercury, added singly or in combination at different doses, on soil bacterial community structure using the bacterial automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (B-ARISA) fingerprinting technique. Principal-component analysis of B-ARISA profiles allowed us to deduce the following order of impact: (Cu + Cd + Hg) >> Hg ≥ Cd > Cu. These results demonstrated that there was a cumulative effect of metal toxicity. Furthermore, the trend of modifications was consistent with the "hump-backed" relationships between biological diversity and disturbance described by Giller et al. (K. E. Giller, E. Witler, and S. P. McGrath, Soil Biol. Biochem. 30:1389-1414, 1998).

Mots clés: heavy metal; toxicity; biomass

Mots clés: microbial population; copper

Domaines: Ecologie, Environnement

Lionel Ranjard, L. Lignier, Rémi Chaussod. Cumulative effects of short term poly-metal contamination on soil bacterial community structure. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2006, 72 (2), pp.1684-1687. ⟨10.1128/AEM.72.2.1684-1687.2006⟩. ⟨hal-02658168⟩