Influence of Heavy Metals and PCBs Pollution on the Enzyme Activity and Microbial Community of Paddy Soils around an E-Waste Recycling Workshop

Abstract

Due to the emerging environmental issues related to e-waste there is concern about the quality of paddy soils near e-waste workshops. The levels of heavy metals and PCBs and their influence on the enzyme activity and microbial community of paddy soils obtained from the immediate vicinity of an e-waste workshop were investigated in the present study. The results indicated that the heavy metal and PCB pollution did not differ significantly with an increase of the sampling point distances (5 to 30 m). The concentration of Cd (2.16 mg·kg-1) and Cu (69.2 mg·kg-1) were higher, and the PCB pollution was also serious, ranging from 4.9 to 21.6 μg·kg-1. The highest enzyme activity was found for urease compared to phosphatase and catalase, and a fluctuating trend in soil enzyme activity was observed in soils from different sampling sites. The microbial analysis revealed that there was no apparent correlation between the microbial community and the pollutants. However, a slight influence for soil microbial communities could be found based on DGGE, the Shannon index and PCA analysis. The present study suggests that the contamination stress of heavy metals and PCBs might have a slight influence on microbial activity in paddy soils. This study provides the baseline data for enzyme activities and microbial communities in paddy soil under the influence of mixed contamination.