Single application of sewage sludge - Impact on the quality of an alluvial agricultural soil

The effects of sewage sludge on soil quality with regard to its nutrient and heavy metal content, microbial community structure and ability to maintain specific soil function (degradation of herbicide glyphosate) were investigated in a three months study using an alluvial soil (Eutric Fluvisol). Dehydrated sewage sludge significantly increased soil organic matter (up to 20.6% of initial content), total and available forms of N (up to 33% and 220% of initial amount, respectively), as well as total and plant available forms of P (up to 11% and 170% of initial amount, respectively) and K (up to 70% and 47% of initial amount, respectively) in the upper 2 cm soil layer. The increase of organic matter was most prominent 3 d after the application of sewage sludge, after 3 months it was no longer significant. Contents of nutrients kept to be significantly higher in the sewage sludge treated soil till the end of experiment. Contents of some heavy metals (Zn, Cu, Pb) increased as well. The highest increase was found for Zn (up to 53% of initial amount), however it was strongly bound to soil particles and its total content was kept below the maximum permissible limit for agricultural soil. Based on molecular fingerprinting of bacterial 16S rRNA gene and fungal ITS fragment on 3rd day and 3rd month after sewage sludge amendment, significant short term effects on bacterial and fungal communities were shown due to the sewage sludge. The effects were more pronounced and more long-term for bacterial than fungal communities. The mineralization of 14C-glyphosate in the sewage sludge soil was 55.6% higher than in the control which can be linked to (i) a higher glyphosate bioavailability in sewage sludge soil, which was triggered by the pre-sorption of phosphate originating from the sewage sludge and/or (ii) beneficial alterations of the sewage sludge to the physical-chemical characteristics of the soil.