Effects of long-term sewage irrigation on agricultural soil microbial structural and functional characterizations in Shandong, China

Soil samples taken from a sewage irrigation area, a partial sewage irrigation area and a ground water irrigation area (control area) were studied with the methods of Biolog and FAME. It was found that the microbial utilization of carbon sources in sewage irrigation areas was much higher than that of control area (P < 0.05). With the increasing of the amount of sewage irrigation, microbial functional diversity slightly increased by the Biolog analysis; however, the amount of epiphyte decreased by the FAME analysis. The results also showed that the Cr, Zn contents were positively correlated with the values of AWCD and the microbial diversity, while Hg content showed negative correlation with the microbial parameters (AWCD of 72 h and Shannon index). Our studies suggested that sewage irrigation resulted in an obvious increase of heavy metals content in soil (P < 0.05), although the maximum heavy metals concentrations were much lower than the current standard of China. Other soil basic characteristics such as cation exchange capacity (CEC), total nitrogen (Nt) and organic matter in sewage irrigation areas obviously increased (P < 0.05). Therefore, it is demonstrated that long-term sewage irrigation had influenced soil microorganisms and soil quality in the studied soils. As a result, it is important to monitor the changes in agricultural soils. Furthermore, our results also confirmed that the methods of Biolog and FAME are effective tools for the assessment of soil microbial structure/function and soil health.