Plant Soil Environ., 2015, 61(6):273-278 | DOI: 10.17221/217/2015-PSE

Heavy metal concentration and the occurrence of selected microorganisms in soils of a steelworks area in PolandOriginal Paper

A. Lenart-Boroń, K. Wolny-Koładka
Department of Microbiology, University of Agriculture in Krakow, Krakow, Poland

This study was aimed to determine the impact of risk element content on the prevalence of the selected microbial groups in industrial soils of one of the steelworks in Poland. The concentration of heavy metals: Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn along with soil pH and the number of mesophilic bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes and Azotobacter was assessed in 20 soil samples. The limit concentrations of Cd, Pb and Zn were exceeded in five sites. However, even in these strongly contaminates sites, the studied microorganisms were abundant. The correlation between the concentration of heavy metals and microbial numbers was very weak and statistically insignificant. High numbers of fungi were observed in the contaminated sites, which was particularly interesting in one of the sites, strongly contaminated with Cd, Pb and Zn.

Keywords: toxic; contamination; microbial community; pollution; industry

Published: June 30, 2015  Show citation

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Lenart-Boroń A, Wolny-Koładka K. Heavy metal concentration and the occurrence of selected microorganisms in soils of a steelworks area in Poland. Plant Soil Environ. 2015;61(6):273-278. doi: 10.17221/217/2015-PSE.
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